Nefertiti in the Flak Tower

December 1, 2013

A prolific Australian essayist (A Point of View) and poet (Opal Sunset) long settled in Britain, James writes traditionally fashioned verse in the realist manner of W.H. Auden and Philip Larkin: frank, melancholic, and often witty. Now in his 70s, he observes an eroding culture shamed by its past--"The language falls apart before our eyes,/ But what it once was echoes in our ears/ As poetry, whose gathered force defies/ Even the drift of our declining years"--but more often he recasts personal memory from the vantage point of age, acknowledging lost opportunities and squandered time not with regret but with a hard-won acceptance: "...the sweet embrace/ Of what your history was bound to do:/ Close in, and in due time take your place." VERDICT To contemporary American ears, James's strongly rhymed and metered lines may creak ever so slightly, but the mechanics of his craft always serve "The honour of the necessary task/ Done well, not just for show, and done for keeps." Substantive, skilled, and indeed necessary, James's poetry stands in the company of Aussie formalist masters Les Murray, A.D. Hope, and Peter Porter.--Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, NY

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