Reviews: From the Devil's Pulpit

The following review appeared in World Literature Today, [Spring 1998 v72 n2 p438] published by © University of Oklahoma Press.

   Beginning with Odilon Redon's engraving The Temptation of Saint Anthony on the cover, From the Devil's Pulpit is an amusing, attractive book. Besides John Agard's mischievous poems there are delightful drawings of deviltry by Satoshi Kitamura and pages of such quotations and pseudo-quotes as "God is good and The Devil isn't bad either" ("Irish Proverb") and "Spell my name backwards. / Ask yourself: Have you LIVED?" ("Yours truly, The Devil"). Agard offers a "Book of Temptation," over 120 short witty poems providing the Devil's perspective on the Bible, history, and life.

   Agard is not a Satanist; there are not many of them publishing of late. His Devil is more a social satirist or even just a comedian than an advocate of sin. There are invitations to sex but not to real evils. This is mostly tame stuff, not even S&M, cross-dressing, or other recent theme-restaurant fun. Straight sex and social satire are about it. Poems include "The Devil at Lords," "The Seeds of Wimbledon," "The Devil at Carnival," "Glory Glory Be to Chocolate," "Light Up Your Pipes," "Coffee in Heaven," "The Devil's Plenary Address to a Conference," and "I Pity von Your Clocks." There is a section titled "A Friend of the Arts" which includes "Mona Lisa You Teaser," "Lucifer Relaxes with a Michael Jackson Video," "In the Afterworld of Publishing," and "Lucifer Addresses Hollywood's Oscar Ceremony." Classical culture remains alive with "Of Course the Devil Speaks Latin," consisting of obvious sexual puns. The Devil is at times a conventional moralist complaining of the horrors of nationalism, ethnic hatreds, and civil war in Rwanda, Ireland, and Bosnia. Agard has a philosophy: life consists of balance, opposites, temptations, curiosity, excitements, pleasures; every god needs a devil, every order needs a disorder, every established hierarchy needs skeptical mockery.

   A weakness of the collection is the lack of clear structure, progression, narrative, or symbolism. Poems refer to the rebellion of the angels, Lot's wife, Salome, Saint Augustine, Luther, and Mahatma Gandhi, but their placement feels arbitrary, as does the order of the eight sections of the book, beginning with "Applecalypse" and concluding with "Newspeak Devilspeak." The amusing becomes wearisome without drama or development, the parts are better than the whole. Many poems will be quoted, but From the Devil's Pulpit is a book in which to skip around. It would, however, be a mistake to dismiss it as just clever joking. Agard has a talent for punning and at finding unexpected metaphors in otherwise dead language. He has a sense of rhythm and an attractive personal voice. The verse is uneven, some lines are careless, but there are other lines of a real poet. Agard has always been more than just a performance poet, but I never expected the Devil to reincarnate John Betjeman as a "black" poet of popular culture. From the Devil's Pulpit is another example of the continuing good and varied taste of Dufour Editions.

By Bruce King Muncie, In.
Review Grade: A