Compiled and arranged by Patricia Marirea Mudd and Joseph Ellert Mudd.

I won't lie -- this was not an easy review to write. Not only because `Bermuda's Golden Age Of Poetry' is a huge book, but also because the thing is so beautifully bound and handsomely presented that it's hard to bring yourself to actually open it. You're always thinking that maybe you shouldn't disturb the delicate pages or tarnish the stately spine by bending it in some primitive act like reading. The book seems better than that. The book seems like a treasure, and if you ever do work up the courage to hold it in your hopelessly human hands, open it and engage in that age-old ritual that sets you apart from the rest of the animal kingdom, you may find that a treasure is exactly what this document is.

The work is a compilation of poems published in Bermuda's only daily newspaper during the era when poetry was life for more than a few souls. In other words, a collection of nineteenth century works of art written in, about or inspired by Bermuda. Isn't that great?.

Back in those days slavery was finally becoming an evil relic, the fever was killing people all over the world and England was the only world power worth writing home about. And, as far as I can see, poetry was far more respected as an art form in Bermuda than it is today. I mean, could you imagine a poetry section in today's Royal Gazette ? Those Victorian Onions were pretty cool weren't they? Well, sometimes anyway.

At first glance, the book seems like a collection of well-constructed love poems, as titles like `The Sigh: A Love Elegy' and `The Girl I Left Behind Me' immediately jump out and grab your attention. However, you soon find yourself immersed in a plethora of emotional hardship, loss, desire and a whole lot of poetic license. See this book is dimensionally overwhelming at times, and if you're the kind of person who can sit and read poems for hours at a time, this book will transport you back to nineteenth century Bermuda, and you will laugh, cry and protest along with the eloquent poets of our canonical era. And if you find favourites in everything, your favourite piece in this book will touch your heart like no other poem can.

Perhaps my favourite piece in the entire collection is the very first poem. An astoundingly passionate and touching piece called `Fidelle Or The Negro Child,' which was originally published in The Bermuda Gazette & Weekly Adviser on the 2nd of August 1800. This wonderful piece is a three-stanza admonishment of the inhuman practice of slave trading (which was still very much a part of everyday life back then), written from the perspective of a female slave by a Miss Stockdale. Apparently Miss Stockdale was a daughter of one Mr. Joseph Stockdale, who was, among other things, the editor of the Weekly Adviser.

Could it be that our much-maligned Royal Gazette was once an abolitionist newspaper? Maybe that should be studied next. In any event, this poem would be outstanding in any era if only because of its fierce commitment to expose the truth and speak out against evil, no matter how powerful it may be ... and it's always powerful isn't it? `Fidelle ...' alone would be enough of a significant historical document to classify this book as an exceedingly valuable study guide for the serious social scientist, but that piece is just the beginning! Everything from the plague of the century to the ever-changing landscape is addressed in this awesome collection. Personal tributes to loved ones who fell victim to Yellow Fever are scattered throughout the pages of this book (`On The death Of My Cousin' - page 351, `Ode To Sickness'- page 315); in fact, the pages that display poems written and published between 1855 and 1860 are littered with titles that begin with `On The Death Of ...'. A sobering reminder that the nineteenth century wasn't always free labour and carefree days.

There are poems about the development of the land (`Causeway, Or Causey, Or Cawsey' -- Page 343), the beauty of the land ('Lines On Bermuda' - Page 302, 'Bermuda' -- page 39), the beauty of the locals (`The Fair Bermudian' -- Page 51, `The Rose Of Bermuda' - Page 352) and even the beauty of the foliage (`The Banana' - Page 59, `The Rose Of The Valley - Page 121, `To The Cedar In Devonshire Church Yard' - Page 359).

In short, this is an extremely comprehensive study of nineteenth century poetic form in Bermuda. I could literally write a five thousand-word review about this book quite easily. I mean, the old pictures of Bermuda's once lush landscape alone could be the topic of a photography thesis. And then there are the hundreds of poems that are delicately packed into this timeless work of art, each piece holding immeasurable value. I mean, if the topic of the piece doesn't educate you, the writing style will, or the language, or the literary voice or something that you did not know before reading the piece will jump out and hit you in the brain -- trust me.

This book is an immediate national treasure, and if it doesn't appear on the national high school curriculum right next to Shakespeare in the next year or so, then we deserve whatever disastrous fate befalls the drones of history that refuse to study themselves.

The collection was compiled and arranged by Patricia Marirea Mudd and Joseph Ellert Mudd, and published by Historical Research Publishers. `Bermuda's Golden Age Of Poetry: Compilation Of Historical Poems 1800 - 1900' will initially print only a six hundred copy run, and word is that it will not go to a second run (so it will be an invaluable piece of local history in your lifetime!). If you love poetry or history or Bermuda or literature or photography or bookbinding or all of the above, you must pick this book up! Find a reason to get this document on your bookshelf; you won't live to regret the purchase. The book is available at The Bermuda Bookstore at the relatively cheap retail price of $45, but you better hurry ... I'm sure supplies are dwindling by now.

And now I close my copy and thank the stars that it remains unblemished, even though it has had to endure the indignity of being read by a twentieth century peasant like me. Hey, maybe we can get a contemporary poet's corner started if enough of you write to the Editor. Now wouldn't that be something! I can see it now ... two hundred years from now a young reviewer gushing all over his keyboard in tribute to a compilation of twenty-first century masterpieces.

Imagine that! VEJAY STEEDE BOOK REVIEW BKS REV