Title: An old form made new...
Product review: First a moment of full disclosure - "Clavichord" - one of the poems in this collection originally appeared in _Curriculum Vitae_ the small literary magazine that I edit. That said, I obviously enjoy Carter's work. When I teach creative writing, my students are always reluctant to embrace forms - they feel that their ideas are somehow constricted by the demands that formal work places upon them - yet _Les Barricades Mysterieuses_ is the most elegant and eloquent rejoinder to that argument I have seen in quite some time. In Carter's work, tension ripples under the surface - like the hidden streams that are the subject of "Interlude". It's impossible to read these villanelles and not be impressed by the craftsmanship and emotional nakedness that provides the underpinnings for all 32 of these poems.
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