Into the Yell

English poet Sarah James’s first poetry collection, Into the Yell (2010), combines elements of magical realism with the grounding experiences of contemporary life, from hospital waiting rooms to cheap hotels. Through this collision of opposing elements, James shows her readers how beauty is present even in the difficult and mundane. The collection has been praised for its thematic resonance with readers of all ages.

The first poem, “Welcome to the Zoo,” consists of a series of analogies between humans and animals kept in captivity. James projects human emotions, such as pain and creative desire, onto practically every zoo creature imaginable, from the penguin to the orangutan. The poem is paradoxically both grave and playful, touching on dark parts of the human psyche but incorporating flexible and optimistic diction and metaphor. The second poem, “Daffodil Trail,” opens on a pastoral scene, where a trail of daffodils marks the verge of a garden. At some point, the daffodils are uprooted, exposing the capacity of those who enjoy nature to also destroy it. Some of James’s poems are clearly based on her own life. For example, she recalls her working holidays in Europe, troubles in school, and travels throughout the American South and the Caribbean.

A few of James’s poems are explicitly cultural and spiritual. For example, in “The Inuit Who Couldn’t Give Up Heels,” James depicts an Inuit woman who seems to be fully assimilated into mainstream culture. In a surprise twist, the woman uses her sharp red high heels to harpoon fish beneath the icy surface of a lake. “The Tree Surgeon Warned” depicts an arborist, or professional feller and caretaker of trees, who warns the speaker that a beloved tree will not stand upright much longer. As they contemplate felling the tree, the speaker acknowledges that it will amount to the end of the world, at least for one creature. “Silvers” depicts an elderly man visiting his partner, who is suffering from severe cognitive decline, in the hospital. This poem’s speaker describes the encounter in the vocabulary of archaeology: as the man reminisces about his life with his partner, he excavates the “fossils” beneath his own taste buds. Into the Yell makes sparing use of language to articulate the elegant metaphors, memories, and values that underlie modern experience.