5/23/2023 0 Comments The First Death by Dimitris Lyacos![]() ![]() ![]() " Lyacos writes one of the most memorable traditionally experimental poetry collections I've read. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. The protagonist here could be a modern Philoctetes or an inverted version of Crusoe but as the ordeal on the island comes to an end one is not finally sure whether one has encountered simply a wretched stump of humanity or, rather, a proudly self-mutilated god. The violence and intensity of his vision combined with the headlong energy of his verse reveal a tragic inner landscape. Lyacos brings to bear a formidable culture in which fragments of ancient Greek are embedded in a supple modern idiom, and a variety of classical and biblical references are seamlessly integrated into the text. In a sequence of fourteen sections the crippled protagonist struggles for his survival.Through an inexhaustible fecundity of imagery and a sense of unquenchable vitality in the midst of denial and despair a relentless fight develops between the character and the elements, as well as his physical and mental disintegration. ![]() ![]() A booklet found by the protagonist of Z213: EXIT during the course of his voyage, The First Death tells the story of a marooned man on a desert island - or has him tell it. Despite being first in the publication history of the Poena Damni trilogy, Dimitris Lyacos's The First Death is the latest installment of the narrative sequence. ![]()
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