Intrinsic: Poetry and Poetics ed. by Mike Zizis (review)

HUMANITIES 453 insights, comedy, symbolism, mood patterns, and excellent use of juxtaposition as indirect commentary.' On the whole, the discussion of technique is clumsier than that of theme. The statement quoted above, by confusing categories, does little to explain Callaghan's tactics or his skill as a craftsman. Similarly, we learn little about The Loved and the Lost when Morley tells us that it is 'based on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth' combined with a 'Jekyll and Hyde theme' as well as 'peripheral use of the Pygmalion myth: but never pauses to explain how these strange bedfellows co-operate in the novel. Occasionally the argument falls back on big, unexplained generalizations (fa writer can never escape metaphor since literature is a structure of analogies') or on fleeting reference to other novelists. More prolonged attention to fewer novels would have made the survey less complete, but might have given a better sense of Callaghan's tact, his deceptive simplicity, and both the weaknesses and merits which Morley acknowledges in the novels, but does not give herself time to demonstrate. (r.M. KERTZER) Intrinsic: Poetry and Poetics. Edited by Mike Zizis Published quarterly. $3.00 per issue; $6.00 per double issue The urge to create a literary magazine is often polemical, feeding from a belief that the new periodical can present better work than all its contemporary rivals. A potential editor with a dedicated group around him dreams of storming the Bastille of poetry in order to liberate the true spirit of creativity. intrinsic, a new magazine of poetry and poetics which was first published in the summer of 1977, is connected to what seems to be a loosely organized group called the Link Poetry Workshop. Certain poets recur in the first four issues but it is difficult to detect any programmatic centre in their work or indeed in the prose sections consisting of interviews, reviews, and theoretics. No poet likes his individuality to be reduced by being slotted inside the dynamics of a group, for he prefers to insist on his own poetic personality, but the names that reappear in these first four issues establish neither strong, personal voices nor specific group orientations. The poets of Intrinsic do not emerge with any degree of originality or strength. Admittedly, reading just one or two poems makes it difficult to estimate the staying power or poetic vision of an author, but even those who are represented by a group of five or six poems do not project a sense of real ability or potential. Indeed, the strongest issue so far is the one to which some wellestablished poets contribute. This issue (No.3, Winter 1978) includes 454 LETTERS IN CANADA 1978 poems by Irving Layton (though only in the nature of squibs), an interview with Tom Marshall whose voice sounds a modestly sane and confident note, and a typically bludgeoning defence of his poetics by Milton Acorn, alternately sensible and vigorously, even narrowly dogmatic . This issue also contains some almost directly prosaic but curiously effective translations from Chinese poetry. It is only in this issue that the magazine makes an insistent impression. Parts of the other issues spark the reader's interest. The first one is devoted to women's concerns, particularly through poetry. It presents two critical impressions of poetry readings by women in Toronto. Such pieces are not easily written and not easily taken in by a reader, particularly , when, as in this case, the poets are not well known, but Gwen Hauser's review gives a clear idea of the reading, together with her own urgently felt ideas within a specific politico-poetic-feminist context. In general, the prose pieces in Intrinsic are stronger than the poems. In particular, there are intelligent and perceptive reviews by assistant editor Mary Ellen Kappler, written with a clarity of expression the editor, Mike Zizis, would do well to copy, as his editorials are consistently overblown, attempting a windy evocation of the sympathetically nonacademic personality who will respond to the outpourings of his supporters , new poets, and friends. He certainly does not come across as having the necessary mixture of critical toughness and open-minded empathy a good magazine editor should have. Intrinsic...