Poetry from a Formalist Lens Book Review: Heaven is a Metaphor by Samuel A. Adeyemi

In his debut chapbook, Heaven is a Metaphor, Samuel A. Adeyemi understands that it is not the passion for self-expression, writes Ancci, but the conscious command of language that makes poetry that is worth rereading.

Recently, I have been thinking about how poems begin. The more I look at this poetic substructure, the more convinced I become that the beginning of the poem is its most important formal aspect. Samuel A. Adeyemi agrees because many of the poems in his debut chapbook, Heaven is a Metaphor, first published by the now-defunct Praxis Magazine in 2021, begin with interpretive intent. While most contemporary poets see it as their compositional necessity to arrive at a memorable, if sometimes superficial, conclusion, Adeyemi is one of the few poets who see the beginnings of their poems as equally important for attaining memorability...

 

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