1. I'm pleased to say there has been a first review of The Necessity of Poetics, by Rupert Loydell, in Tears in the Fence. I suspect, as it is reviewed, and I hope it is reviewed widely (it's provocative enough I think), it will furnish different responses, with differing emphases, and it might look as though the reviewers were reading different books. That's because it's a miscellany rather than a unified volume like The Poetry of Saying or The Meaning of Form. It's also not a straight literary critical volume. Rupert writes from the point of view of a teacher of creative writing who is interested in nurturing poetics as a speculative and anticipatory writerly discourse in his students, who, as Rupert says, have been subjected to two of the pieces collected in the book. Of course, he responds in other ways too. It's a refreshing and personal (or professional) response.
It may be read here: The Necessity of Poetics by Robert Sheppard (Shearsman Books) | Tears in the Fence.
Or, alternately, it may be read here:Aspirational uses of Poetry | Stride magazine
2. I'm pleased to say that there is a second review, by Billy Mills, on his blog, Elliptical Movements which gives a sense of the range of the book, whilst bringing it close to the notion of poetics. I see now that it is a particularly difficult book to review since it's so bitty (on purpose). It is 'a rich compendium of his writings on the subject of poetics.' Overwhelmed by that richness, he concludes: 'You need to read the book to get it all. It’s an invigorating read and a salutary reminder that the best writing doesn’t exist to confirm your biases, but to challenge them.'
Billy does track what he calls the 'excellent "Pulse: All a Rhythm", one of the most interesting things on verbal music I’ve read in a long time;' it is gratifying to hear positive feedback on this quite recent piece, and a favourite of mine. 'Memory is another thread that runs through the book,' he notes, sensitive to the retrospective glances at past poetics, and past decades, while the book clearly moves towards the future, poetics being speculative and anticipatory.
Read Billy's review here: Two by Robert Sheppard: A Review – Elliptical Movements
3. Here’s a third review of The Necessity of Poetics,
a long academic piece that has been written with great care and attention, for
which I am grateful. Citationally it is called:
Kemp, L., (2025) “Book Review: Robert Sheppard, The Necessity of Poetics (2024)”, Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry 17(1).
Here: doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/bip.18564.
You can also download it.
Firstly, it defines poetics, then moves onto the book, descriptively. Then a passage that made me smile a great deal:
The provisional is important for Sheppard’s thinking of, in and about poetics; we may reflect on Sheppard’s long-running Pages blog where he muses on forthcoming reviews of this book.6 Encountering this during the writing of this review I find myself pre-empting Sheppard’s reflections on my review and make my claim now that even this review is provisional. Sheppard will reflect on my review following its online publication and his reflections will be incorporated into his corpus of poetics and in doing so change the ongoing reception of this review. Another example of the ways poetics can operate as the provisional in the context of a poet’s writing.
Kemp is right, of course, I am reflecting upon her review, not so much in this response, but for the future, when I will doubtless move (my) poetics on. The detail here is astonishing, and I realise the multi-facetedness of the book (or ‘jumble’ if you don’t like it, of course) spreads in a number of directions. Linda Kemp summarises: ‘What this book achieves is threefold. Firstly, there is insight into the workings-out of Sheppard’s poetry or at least the outworkings he has chosen to share. Secondly, there is a significant contribution to the discourse of poetics for the innovative and experimental practice of poetry. Thirdly, an important contribution this book makes to the field and practice of poetry is the historical positionality in and through which this milieu of poetry practice is situated.’ I don’t know about ‘insight’, ‘significant’ and ‘important’ (that’s not for me to say), but this review covers the whole field of the book, and I’ll take that word that appears here doubly, ‘contribution’. I want the book to contribute, to be of use to others. And for that folk need to read it. (Details below.)
I describe the full contents of the volume here: Pages: The Necessity of Poetics - out now! (robertsheppard.blogspot.com)
It may be purchased here: https://www.shearsman.com/store/Robert-Sheppard-The-Necessity-of-Poetics-p661888958
