346 BRIGHAM YOUNG university STUDIES

CAROL LYNN PEARSON beginnings provo utah trilogyarts publication 1967 63 ppap 2502.50250

reviewed by edward L hart professor of english at brig-ham young university dr hart a former rhodes scholar atoxford has published inin beloit poetry journal westernhumanities review shakespeare quarterly PMLA and buck-nell review as well as BYU studies and the improvementera

although it is refreshing to meet with so devout an asser-tion of faith as is found in carol lynn pearson s beginningsone wishes that the earnestness were matched by an equallyviable poetic art the reviewer having come to an examinationof the work with a predisposition in its favor in view of itsreputed wide sale found himself poem after poem expectingmore than was delivered

the chief cause of disappointment was the failure of mostof the poems to be poems in reading poetry one expects tofind the author putting to good use those devices that yield ahigh concentration of poetic effect if rhythm sound andtropes are not functioning in a more concentrated and effectiveway than they do in prose we must ask why is this in theform of poetry instead of prose when the author in ritualsays all cries outforoutform form we are tempted to respondamen rhythm sound and figures are of course more

than adjuncts of meaning they reinforce meaning and infact become meaning I1 have failed in beginnings to find anyplace where it seems to me that the sound and the rhythm ofa poem have an organic function any place where they are morethan decorative embellishments

most of the poems are in free verse which is another wayof saying that metrical pattern and line length are not estab-lished and repeated this cchoicehoiceholce of free verse as the predomi-nant pattern seems to me a wise choice on the part of the authorbecause those few poems having meter succeed less well onthe whole than those in free verse for the some six or sevenpoems in conventional verse the author has employed a balladmeter quatrainsquatrains made up of alternating iambic tetrameter andtrimeter lines as in the following poem to a beloved skep-tic

I1 cannot talk with you of godsince sober wise you grew

BOOK REVIEWS 347

so my one recourse in charityIs to talk with god of you

this comes off pretty well with the clever reversal in thelast line but the wit is achieved at the expense of tone I1 sus-pect that the beloved skeptic will find charity extended tohim somewhat condescending and that he will likely be of-fended by the smugness of the familiarity with which thepersona cuddles up to god aside from this prosodicallythere seems to be no relationship between the form and themeaning rhythm sound and structure alike seem irrelevantand externally imposed how for example can one justify theinverted word order of the second line except as an expedientto place the rhyming word at the end of the line

other poems employing the ballad stanza fare even lesswell the rhythm of day old child for example seemssingularly inappropriate because it suggests movement andthere is none it suggests the kind of action found in the balladsa fast moving highly concentrated narrative with overtones ofthe weird and the wild actually the mood of oayday70ldday oldoid childis one of quiet contemplation from this leaving the con-ventionalventional verses we descend to the weakest of all a poem calledbound which moves with the remorseless inevitably trite

beat of a valentine versein her figurative language the author shows much promise

perhaps in figures more than in anything else a poets truecapacity for excitement over words and inventiveness becomesapparent I1 was struck most in beginnings as far as figurativelanguage is concerned by the effectiveness of the metaphorin the first stanza of guilt ballad stanza again

I1 have no vulture sins godthat overhang my skyto climb grey feathering the airand swoop carnivorously

this it seems to me is well imagined the imagery is clearappropriate and consistently developed the metaphor makessharp and immediate the threat to self of great sins theshadows that are connoted by the overhang of the vultureforeshadow the meaningful doom of a person s being consumedin the flesh by his own sins this is good and to me thisstanza is the poetic highlight of the volume

348 BRIGHAM YOUNG university STUDIES

the second stanza reads

its just the tiny sins godthat from memory appearlike tedious buzzing flies to dartlike static through my prayer

this begins well the imagery is still appropriate if the bigsins are vultures the little sins may consistently be gnats vult-ures can eat flesh and insects can suck blood either way weare consumed though I1 could wish the author here again inthe second line had not inverted word order spoiling a col-loquial tone for the sake of a rhyme in the last line the flieshowever instead of mildly annoying us with stings I1 are likestatic the imagery is shifted the mood is broken the naturalaptness of the figure is lost and we are left at the end withthe mechanical tinniness of static still this is I1 should say asuccessful poem

part of my annoyance with the last line of guilt I1 amnow aware stems from my repugnance at the comparison ofprayer to a mechanical contraption like a radio a comparisonmade in another poem called prayer

this radio setcalled prayerIs designedfor remarkablysimple repairwhen the lines failthere is no doubtwhich halfof the setIs out

somehow the analogy aside from the fact that it is a hack-neyed comparison has the effect of cheapening prayer ofpulling it down to the level of gadgetry this is especially truewhen as inin this poem there is a confusion in the imagerywhen the lines fail is more suggestive of a gadget telephone

than of a gadget rado even if it were carefully explained thatthe lines are lines of communication we are still balked be-cause this is itself still one more trite mechanical metaphor

in still other poems it seems to me that the values of re-ligion are cheapened by weak comparisons in investment

BOOK REVIEWS 349

for example we are told concerning the birth of a child thatwhat is bought with coin of pain Is dearly kept rather

than enhancing the value of the birth the argot of the marketplace cheapens it by making it common

the most pervasive imagery of beginnings is associatedwith the physiology of birth or of prebirthprebirth the embryonic andnot being a mother myself I1 am overpowered in the fetalpresence not unlike a father in the waiting room but here it isnot so much the words that betray me into uneasiness as it isthe pictures 1I am not unaware of the intended symbolism butsomehow the adult in the fetal position on the dust jacket

and in the first picture inside the book puts me off remind-ing me of nothing so much as those unfortunates huddled inthis position in sad regression on the floors of the state hospitalthe author has forgotten that in the beginning was the wordnot the picture I1 know few books of poems whose valuevalue hasbeen enhanced by illustration unless a person s name is will-iam blake he will probably be better off letting his wordsstand as they inevitably must anyway on their own merits andspeaking of words I1 should think the author would be welladvised to avoid such solecisms as specked p 7 and tiitilrii p34 specked can hardly be thought to have connotations dif-ferent from or better than those of the existing word speckledand I1 see no justification whatever for creating a word to re-place the ancient and respectable english word till

in summation concerning the overall effect of this volumeI1 am convinced that the author has revealed some buddingpowers As they appear in this volume likewise I1 believe themto be predominantly powers of wit rather than of poetry theindividual pieces at their best have a dorothy parkeresqueParker esquequality a cleverness in turn of phrase as in to the mormonnow blessed with roses instead of tar and feathers

remember aesopsaesophtale of thetravelerplease notethe wind failedto make himshed his coatit was the sunthat won

350 BRIGHAM YOUNG UNVERSITY STUDIESI1

I1 believe however that the author gives hints of qualities thatcan be developed beyond wit into the genuine poetic thisvolume is after all as the title says beginnings and fullfledged maturity is not to be expected from the start theauthor is young and one hopes and expects that in subsequentvolumes she will submit herself more fully to the disciplinesof the craft

LLOYD K PRICE K MERRELL V D JOHNSON E thechurch executive building the kingdom through leader-ship development saltsaitsali lake city utah bookcraft 196790 ppap 1501.50150

reviewed by joseph bentley associate professor of educa-tional psychology at university of utah dr bentley has pub-lished widely and presently has a book at the press

it may be that the most important aspect of the trainingproject reported in this book is that it actually happened bythis I1 mean to say that an administrative training program forchurch leaders was organized designed and carried out thefact that it was planned and executed by competent and trainedprofeprofessionalsssionals and that it carried the implicit if not explicit sup-port of the church hierarchy howard W hunter attended thefirst session in los angeles and spoke informally makes thistraining program a significant event

the issue of training programs for LDS church leaders is

one that has not been fully explored the relationship betweena formal educational or training program and reliance uponthe powers of inspiration and revelation is not clear forexample for generations we in the church have taken pridein the fact that our leaders are not learned men in the sensethat they have attended schools designed to prepare them forreligious work indeed I1 have heard some sneer at the protest-ant clergy and its heavy emphasis upon academic and intellec-tual preparation yet at the same time training programs inthe LDS church are extensive and seem to be expanding rapid-ly seminary has been with us for many years institutes ofreligion are proliferating teachers in the church school systemare encouraged to take advanced degrees not in religion how-ever unless at BYU and are returned every other summer orso to a campus experience some missionaries are given language