Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

David Dick

David Dick

David Dick has recently finished a PhD on John Ashbery's poetry at Monash University

David Dick reviews 'Satan Repentant' by Michael Aiken

October 2018, no. 405 17 September 2018
It is time to repent my sins. Recently, I have been asking myself if poetry is exempt from a need to entertain. Is the act of reading a poem or a book of poetry an escapist, amusing, joyous diversion from the rigours of reality? Or is it something more tedious, cold-blooded, blandly intellectual – an act not of enjoyment, but of control and imposition? If you scan enough poetry criticism, it wo ... (read more)

David Dick reviews 'Archipelago' by Adam Aitken and 'Present' by Elizabeth Allen

May 2018, no. 401 26 April 2018
Both Adam Aitken’s Archipelago and Elizabeth Allen’s Present examine the establishment and mutability of identity in the worlds of objects, histories, literature, and media in which they place their speakers. Of course, the exploration of identity is a common theme of poetry, particularly as it pertains to how the material of language helps shape such a tenuous concept. Admittedly, the theme s ... (read more)