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Thom Satterlee’s linking narrative Burning Wyclif won the 2006 Walt McDonald First Book prize, and is probably the best book to come out this year.
Not only is this the most beautifully bound book of poetry I think I've ever seen, but Thom Satterlee, assistant professor of English at Taylor University, and advisor to the student-run magazine Parnassus, is obviously a master at his craft. His research into his subject, his empathetic exploration of a time very different from our own, as well as his mastery of technique makes his a stand-out book among this year's many prize winners. Burning Wyclif is a novelized-biography of John Wyclif, the 14th century reformer declared heretic by Pope Martin V in 1415. Wyclif's books were ordered burned by Pope Martin, and no images of Wyclif we have today are actually from his time. Satterlee therefore had to restore the life of Wyclif to us, much in the same way an archaeologist restores a whole garment from only a few charred bits. To this scant historical framework Satterlee brings the wisdom and sensitivity of a mature writer. He uses free verse, sonnets, and other forms to their best effect. His villanelle "A Young Italian Man Healed of the Plague by Saint Bridget of Sweden" reminds me how muscular this form can be in the right hands. Satterlee gives voice to plague victims and survivors, The Black Friars, William of Ockham, John Ball (executed leader of the peasant revolt), The Flagellants, the Duke of Lancaster, Arab scholar Ibn Khtir (based on Ibn Abu Madyan), assorted clerics, politicians, devotees, and a host of others who filled the 14th century world we are invited to enter. Here, Satterlee gives voice to Wyclif's trepidation over his own writings. He has come to the point where he realizes that to follow God will bring him into direct conflict with the Church. He agonizes: * All day I felt too afraid to read * what I had written. When the ink dried I hid the page * beneath other pages, believing that if I were right pride would make it * impossible to write again, and if I were wrong shame would do the same. (1) * This task of historic reconstruction is one that novels-in-verse and linking narrative poetry do particularly well, because of the intimacy and focus of verse. Poetry, too, is allowed a looser, more easygoing relationship with plot than its prose cousin enjoys; which allows the poet to follow the map of the interior life, which plot-driven narrative often must skip over. Through his success Satterlee shows us how people lived in a distant era of disease, religious turmoil and political upheaval. He returns us to the voice of our cultural ancestors telling us how things were, and how they might be again. * 1. Satterlee, Thom. Burning Wyclif. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press. 2006. 52. For other linking narratives, please check out Erin Noteboom's Ghost Maps, Davis McCombs' Ultima Thule, or Janet Holmes' Green Tuxedo. To view all articles, please click here. For the earliest articles, which focus heavily on narrative technique, please visit the archive.
The copyright of the article Burning Wyclif in Poetry is owned by Holly Pettit. Permission to republish Burning Wyclif in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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