For the Hell of It: Nil Nil (1993)

Having outlined the key stylistic features and thematic consistency of Paterson’s poetry to date, this chapter begins with original readings of key poems. It argues that the poems of Paterson’s first collection Nil Nil subtly cultivate metaphysical paradox, drawing on the specific details of the everyday so as to set into motion perceptual transformations that offer striking new perspectives. The chapter focuses in particular on how the central technique of estranging ordinariness correlates with Nil Nil’s central themes: the unstable, mutable nature of the self, and the blurred distinction between the real and the imagined. The chapter also makes reference to Louis MacNeice, Philip Larkin, Tony Harrison, Seamus Heaney, Arthur Rimbaud and the Symbolists, with which the poems share natural affinities.