British poet James Sale has a mission. A lifelong poet, he is now turning himself to what is perhaps the most ambitious project of his career. He’s writing an epic poem of heaven and hell that “stands four-square against the meaninglessness of post-modernism.”
Sale began writing The English Cantos in 2017. The first volume, HellWard, was published in 2019, and he is working on the next volume. If “HellWard” sounds something like “The Inferno,” it should. Dante’s The Divine Comedy is the model. In fact, Dante (like Virgil) serves as the guide to the poet embarking on the journey of Hellward. Sales considers Dante’s epic as one of the greatest ever written because of “the profound belief system behind the overt belief system.” The overt belief system is Roman Catholic; the belief system behind it is something broader. It’s no surprise than poet John Milton is an inspiration here.
The title “HellWard” also borrows from Sale’s experience with a malignant sarcoma in 2011, which required three months in the hospital. He commends his medical care, but he notes that any prolonged hospital experience, no matter how good the care, is a kind of prison where you suffer, accompanied by people around you suffering, some more intensely than you. Over that three months, he spent time in five wards, each different, suggesting a loose similarity to Dante’s nine circles.
Instead of nine circles, Sale has 12, each depicted with its own canto. The story begins, appropriately enough, in the hospital, and then progresses through meetings with relatives, friends, pupils, and supervisors, before descending to the lower and worse regions of mass murderers, Brexit, and poetasters, with philosophers occupying the lowest (and worst) of all. Each canto is introduced by a short prose summary entitled “The Argument,” because Sale wants you to know exactly what lies ahead.
This is how the first canto, “Hospital,” begins.
It had to be — that long descent began:
About me images, one century
That started, stuttered, showed how poor is man
In all things except his savagery.
My grandfather’s face, first in that stale line,
Who missed the trenches through admin’s mystery;
Was sent instead to fight in Palestine,
While friends he’d known all died in No-Man’s-Land.
How lucky, then, for him; for me a sign:
Despite the misery, unintended, unplanned
That characterized the fools who sought to build
A better world – progress – to make a stand,
As it were; as if politics could field
A force sufficient to overcome gods
Whose power, agencies were not like to yield
To mortal die, its throes and sadder odds.
Or, as if science, too, could weight outcomes —
Build Babels better far than Nimrod did.
James Sale
HellWard is not simply a refashioning of Dante. It is a journey through the sometimes barren and often debris-strewn landscape of contemporary life and culture. And it is a dangerous journey; several times, the guide Dante has to pluck the poet from imminent destruction. Most significantly, it is a journey showing that life has meaning, and people have choices, choices that can deceive as to their effect and outcome.
Sales has been writing poetry for more than 50 years. One might say he’s also been living and breathing poetry for at least that long. In addition to his own writing and readings, he’s been a poetry publisher, a promoter of poets and poetry events, a judge in poetry competitions, a guest poet, a guest writer on poetry, and winner of numerous poetry competitions himself. His poems have been published in magazines and journals in both the U.K. and the U.S.
Few contemporary poets would even consider attempting to write an epic on this scale. What Sale has done and is doing with The English Cantos is nothing short of remarkable.
Related:
A selection from The English Cantos, by James Sale, read by Joseph Sale
Photo by Gael Varoquaux,, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young, author of the novels Dancing Priest, A Light Shining, Dancing King, and the newly published Dancing Prophet, and Poetry at Work.
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How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.
“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”
—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish
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james sale says
Thank you so much for an excellent and a deep appreciation of my work – and it would seem my activities too! One doe not often find such a disinterested interest in one’s work.
Glynn says
James, thanks for the note. I’m fascinated with the idea of a contemporary poet writing an epic poem — and in English!
james sale says
Thanks Glynn: I think it’s an interesting story because since I first read Paradise Lost over 50 years ago, I purposed to write one. But as my writings make clear, I do not believe it possible to do in blank verse without becoming Miltonic. It has taken a near-death experience and the discovery of the potential inherent in terza rima to show my Muse the way. A review on Storgy by the English horror writer has described me as ‘England’s epic poet’, which I am proud of: https://storgy.com/2020/11/08/hell-ward-by-james-sale/ Let me know if I can re-publish your review on our Wider Circle: https://thewidercircle.webs.com/poetry-in-action
Glynn says
James, yes, you may republish.
james sale says
Thanks Glynn and – ooh – i omitted to say horror writer, Ross Jeffreys – credit where it’s due! It will be going up soon then.
Theresa Rodriguez says
Thank you, Mr. Young, for an excellent review and introduction into the art and mind of James Sale! I hope many more people will come to read and appreciate his work and unique poetic voice!
James Sale says
Thank you Theresa for your comments. I am glad that you have found this excellent site and Glynn Young’s review. You will note a cornucopia of interesting poetic subjects, including the sonnet, about which you are extremely passionate. Perhaps Glynn might like to review your new book sonnets if you sent him a copy? For those who wish to see your work anyway, the link is: https://amzn.to/33YJF6F
Andrew Benson Brown says
It’s great that James’s work is starting to get the traction and appreciation it deserves. Much thanks to you, Glynn, for taking the time to read and write about this brilliant epic!
I foresee that James Sale will in time enter the Canon of great British poets. The sociologist Randall Collins has described canonization as a process that solidifies over several generations, and is largely dependent on the influence that a present writer/artist/thinker has on those who come after him. While a great creative mind is often obscure in their own lifetime, particularly in industrialized democracies that do not place a high value on the production of such work, there is almost always a small circle of appreciators ‘in the know’ who recognize and champion their work.
Of course, my hope is that Sale will also be able to sell books and achieve financial success in his lifetime—that’s always nice! Figures like Shakespeare and Goethe are a testament that such a thing is possible.
Glynn says
Andrew – thank you for the comment. What Sale has done here is significant. As you say, it may take time before it’s recognized. But that doesn’t detract from its significance.
James Sale says
Ha ha ha!!! It’s nice to think others rate your work so highly and that one might be in the pantheon or ‘canon’ one day; however, one must not dwell on such matters for too long – that way madness lies! No, the job of each poet, whatever level they are at, is, first, to heal themselves through writing; and then, second, if their poetry is good enough, to begin the healing of others. For isn’t that what poetry does? It provides the words to heal the world. Reputation and other consequences are in the hand of God – so we press on to be the best we can be and to invite the Muse into our lives. Press on, brothers and sisters! Thanks Andrew, thanks Glynn.
Andrew Benson Brown says
That is certainly a healthier way to think about the poet’s function. I, however, cannot help but obsess about the future.
James Sale says
Obsessing about anything is a pathology that needs to be treated before it becomes irreversibly incurable. But help is at hand: remember, Apollo is the god of poetry AND the god of healing. Help yourself, therefore, by writing a poem about your predicament – it can be first person or third person; but, feel your way into what you are feeling, especially about the future and why it is preoccupying your thinking. Hope this helps.
The Mindflayer says
Hello Gynn, Thank you for your fabulous review and analysis of HellWard. It is great to see my father getting recognition for his hard work. I particularly loved your insight that, “HellWard is not simply a refashioning of Dante. It is a journey through the sometimes barren and often debris-strewn landscape of contemporary life and culture.” I think this is absolutely spot on and so well observed! To simply ape Dante would not be sufficient to acquire the epithet of epic, just imitation. But the fact he has painted a (sometimes bleak) portrait of contemporary existence and its moral dearths is quite profound and fascinating. Thanks again!
Glynn says
Joseph – thank you for the comment. And I enjoyed your reading from The English Cantos!
The Mindflayer says
Thank you for your kind words, Glynn! That means a lot! It was a joy to produce and, credit where credit is due, my collaborator on that project, Rob, is a brilliant storyteller and film-maker too who deserves much of the credit! He made me retake many, many times and I think we ended up with a superior final film as a result!
james sale says
I never expected when I had children that one of them would become an outstanding writer; but, it’s a blessing, and to get my own son writing to support my writing is, so far as I am concerned, pure grace. And thanks Glynn, too, for having taken the trouble to see and listen to the awesome reading of part of Canto 1 that Joseph has done. For those who haven’t seen it, go:
Andrew Benson Brown says
Hmm, guess I always assumed that yours was a sort of James Mill/John Stuart Mill type relationship, teaching him ancient literature from infancy and molding him to the writer’s craft. It is a slight disappointment to me that Joseph is merely an accidental genius.
James Sale says
Let’s not forget that being a poet is a vocation – a calling – so no-one can really determine a vocation for another, not even a parent. And we all know of parents who become deeply disappointed that their children didn’t become this (e.g. a doctor) or that (e.g. a lawyer) and proved never ‘good enough’ – a permanent damage to the child’s psyche. So, yes, I did bring my son Joseph up to enjoy all the delights of literature: we read Paradise Lost together when he was 14. But, I always avoided creating the expectation that he would disappoint me were he not a literary type: we waited patiently for the cosmos to reveal its calling to him in its own due time. As it happened, we did not have long to wait, since he decided at aged 17 that becoming a writer was his destiny and he has pursued that ever since. Indeed, his first novel was published by a New York publisher when he was only 21: https://amzn.to/3gtLbTe Hope that puts your mind at rest!
The Mindflayer says
Thank you my wonderful father! I do agree that you trod an immensely fine line between imparting enthusiasm but also allowing space for me to pursue my own interests. And it is good that though we converge on many pursuits: drama, poetry, writing, stories, epic, lapsing tea – we also diverge (for example, my interest in gaming), which is not only healthy, but often where we find very interesting conversations! Thank you for your lovely and kind words. Given how I was subsequently treated by that publisher, the achievement of it feels like it has been overshadowed somewhat in my mind, so it is nice to be reminded of how amazing it felt at the time! And nothing can take away from that!
The Mindflayer says
Hahaha, or like Chiron and Achilles? The weird and wise centaur teaching the young man war-craft in the woods. I would be lying if I said I did not at one time think of it that way! I am no genius, however! I have much to learn.