The children on the lawnjoined hand to handgo round and roundeach arm going intothe next arm, aroundfull circleuntil it comesback into each of the singlebodies againThey are singing, butnot to each other:their feet movealmost in time to the singingWe can seethe concentration ontheir faces, their eyesfixed on the emptymoving spaces just infront of them.We might mistake thistranced moving for joybut there is no joy in itWe can see (arm in arm)as we watch them goround and roundintent, almoststudious (the grassunderfoot ignored, the treescircling the lawnignored, the lake ignored)that the whole pointfor themof going round and roundis (faster slower)going round and roundA remarkable collection by Margaret Atwood. There are passages worthy of Eliot, with some of the more obscure language appearing to draw directly from The Waste Land. Indeed, Atwood's The Circle Game shares many of the apocalyptic preoccupations of Eliot's The Wast Land, perhaps more overtly in The Circle Game with its references to floods and death.This is a collection of poetry by a young poet (aspiring novelist, for which she would receive greater acclaim) influenced by the Modernists - not only Eliot, but Pound and Doolittle too. It is one of her earliest collections and one of her best (from what I've read). Michael Ondaatje accurately described Atwood poetry as bringing "the violence of mythology into the present world". Indeed, Atwood's language is infused, like the poetry of Pound and Doolittle, with allusions to Ancient Mythology (specifically Greek).
This volume is from 1966, and on the whole it is very good poetry. My own enjoyment of it was mixed. The early poems in particular were stifling to read, such a great sense of compression in the lines, the 'I' speaking always so trapped and cold and invisible, very much of that time and space, a woman in the 60s. But then as it went on, the poems do build upon themselves; when in "The Circle Game" she ends with the line "I want the circle broken" there starts to be more breath, and then as it goes I felt (I did not study this, it might not be true, but I felt it) that even in the poems where she returns to look at her frozen, trapped self, she is doing it with the knowledge that she might try to break out.It is also fascinating, having read two of her novels (which I did not like, but oh, I admired the craft of The Handmaid's Tale and I always mean to read some of her others), to see the same feeling underneath, the same concerns about women and men. I will most certainly read more of her poetry, and move her novels closer, although I am frightened to dive into another one.
What do You think about The Circle Game: Poems (1998)?
The amazing and beautiful thing about Margaret Atwood's poetry, to me, is how much it blows me away. I normally don't read much poetry at all. I enjoy some, from time to time, but I tend to read a poem or a two at a time, based on recommendation or assignment, and leave it at that. But with Atwood, I can read an entire collection and feel shivers up my spine.There were too many wonderful stanzas to count, here, and so many brilliant pieces. So instead I'll just end the review with this:and hereto be aware isto know total fear
—Caitlin
I think this is a gorgeous collection, one found by me only after reading most of Atwood's novels. While I like many of her novels (and truly love a few), THE CIRCLE GAME (1966) would have to be one my favorite Atwood works (the other being THE HANDMAID'S TALE). What is revealed in the simplicity of her verse moves me every time. "Letters, Towards and Away" is beautiful with its reluctant hope of love ... while other pieces are affecting as they illuminate the deterioration of the same emotion. The fact that it is so hard to find new copies drives me crazy, as I'd love to stock it in the store.
—Tina
