The Head of the Bed

John Hollander

The Head of the Bed comes with a quick critical study afterwards written by Harold Bloom, and is a much better book for it. Hollander's pre-Raphaelite poetic cycle is quite readable on its own, but without Bloom, it's going to be nothing but a bunch of pretty descriptions, unless you happen to be up on some slightly obscure mythology and some modern commentary upon it. (It's also the first time I've ever seen the word shehkinah used in a piece of non-religious prose. An unexpected little pleasure.)

Bloom's surprisingly readable afterword aside, the poem itself is quite a nice little piece. Fifteen fifteen-line pieces, numbered rather than titled, in essence a single nightmare and Hollander's pontifications on its inspirations. The word “pre-Raphaelite” above is not used lightly; the description here comes thick, fast, and rococo. Which is, when you think about it, a rather impressive thing to do in only two hundred twenty-five total lines (consider the lengths of the epics by William Morris or Dante Gabriel Rossetti and you'll see where I'm coming from). The whole comes off as something of an anti-pastoral, pretty and ominous at the same time.

There are likely better places to start with the notoriously difficult Hollander, but this one reads extremely well regardless. **** (*** ˝ if you get it without the Bloom commentary)