Prologue

The prologue introduces Paterson’s poetry by outlining the development of its key stylistic features, alongside the poetry’s underlying thematic consistency. It outlines the poems’ inventive deployment of quotidian detail, increased use of direct address to the reader, and exploration of personae, leading to a more anonymous poetic voice in the later work. The chapter argues that these stylistic features can all be seen as facilitators to the philosophical thinking and imaginative transformation that the poems insist upon, given the thematic concern at the heart of Paterson’s poetics: the divide between our routine encounters with the world, and the sense that the complex nature of reality lies beyond the perceptually-restricted state of human consciousness. The chapter concludes that the defining feature of Paterson’s poetry is its productive deployment of competing dualities, and that allowing for their free play is crucial in enabling a full understanding of Paterson’s poems.