Metaphysical Commentaries & Other Poems

Profound clashes of duality between certainty and uncertainty, good and evil, fate (read predestination) and chance drive the poetic narratives of Dennis Daly's new book, Metaphysical Commentaries and Other Poems. Divided into three sections, the book deals with overall questions of consciousness and perception in the first two parts and specificity of action, advice, and transcendence in the third part. Pantoums, sonnets, ghazals, and rhymed stanzaic pieces populate most of the first and second parts, while the third part, inspired and informed by Robert Fitzgerald's translation/ adaptation of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, focuses on the philosophy of living and lessons learned and, like its predecessor, delivers its messages in a series of rhymed quatrains. The quatrains number 154 as compared with the Rubaiyat's versions of 75, 110, or 101 (These are Fitzgeralds's numbers. Khayyam probably wrote hundreds more.) Humor abounds and Daly often winks at Khayyam's content through deft wordplay and occasional themes. The seriousness of the themes matches the strictly traditional forms used by Daly. His intricacies and shades of meaning contrast with the lyrical lightness of Khayyam. Both, however, utilize musical techniques to great effect.