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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Lyre is a sonic, sculptural cornucopia of new and startling forms. Stuart Cooke proposes that all kinds of life — animal, plant and otherwise — have their own modes of expression, each of which can each be translated into a different kind of poetry. Ranging across Australasian oceans, coastlines, rainforests, savannahs and deserts, and similarly wide-ranging in its approach to form and lineation, Lyre asks what happens when poems make contact with non-human worlds; in so doing, it welcomes whole new worlds to poetry.
Inspired in part by books like Les Murray’s Translations from the Natural World and Barry Hill & John Wolseley’s Lines for Birds, Lyre is the result of many years of research into a selection of Australasian flora, fauna and landforms. The collection asks what happens to poetry when it encounters more-than human life.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Translating the World
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , September / Spring vol. 80 no. 3 2021; (p. 61-71) 'In the summer of 2019–20 I worked in the customer service department of an Australian zoo. I was used to cycling to work, gliding past traffic and cutting through parklands in my khaki uniform. But I found myself driving much more than usual. Cycling resulted in weariness and respiratory irritation, as I breathed in toxic particulate matter. Bushfire smoke smothered the city, forcing us indoors. With the smoke settling for days at a time, I relied more on my exhaust-spewing vehicle to get to work. The dark irony was hard to miss.' (Introduction) -
Writing Toward and With : Ethological Poetics and Nonhuman Lives
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: A/b : Auto/Biography Studies , vol. 35 no. 1 2020; (p. 63-79)'In this essay, the author argues that the appreciation of nonhuman poetic forms, or an “ethological poetics,” is a necessary but neglected mode of ecological relation, and is especially important in the Anthropocene. Motivated by his own creative practice—in particular, the composition of Lyre, a book of poems about different animals, plants, and landforms—he considers important examples of ethologically attentive poetics before outlining how his compositional method attempts to incorporate insights from the environmental humanities and animal studies. Rather than insisting on their essential difference from human worlds, the author argues for an attentive, ethical, and imaginative engagement with nonhuman lives, through which surprising and unusual forms of poetry might emerge.' (Publication abstract)
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Corey Wakeling Reviews Stuart Cooke’s Lyre
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , October no. 97 and 98 2020;
— Review of Lyre 2019 selected work poetry
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Corey Wakeling Reviews Stuart Cooke’s Lyre
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , October no. 97 and 98 2020;
— Review of Lyre 2019 selected work poetry -
Translating the World
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , September / Spring vol. 80 no. 3 2021; (p. 61-71) 'In the summer of 2019–20 I worked in the customer service department of an Australian zoo. I was used to cycling to work, gliding past traffic and cutting through parklands in my khaki uniform. But I found myself driving much more than usual. Cycling resulted in weariness and respiratory irritation, as I breathed in toxic particulate matter. Bushfire smoke smothered the city, forcing us indoors. With the smoke settling for days at a time, I relied more on my exhaust-spewing vehicle to get to work. The dark irony was hard to miss.' (Introduction) -
Writing Toward and With : Ethological Poetics and Nonhuman Lives
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: A/b : Auto/Biography Studies , vol. 35 no. 1 2020; (p. 63-79)'In this essay, the author argues that the appreciation of nonhuman poetic forms, or an “ethological poetics,” is a necessary but neglected mode of ecological relation, and is especially important in the Anthropocene. Motivated by his own creative practice—in particular, the composition of Lyre, a book of poems about different animals, plants, and landforms—he considers important examples of ethologically attentive poetics before outlining how his compositional method attempts to incorporate insights from the environmental humanities and animal studies. Rather than insisting on their essential difference from human worlds, the author argues for an attentive, ethical, and imaginative engagement with nonhuman lives, through which surprising and unusual forms of poetry might emerge.' (Publication abstract)
