Edwin Thumboo: Two Voices

Abstract

The article finds two dominant approaches in the poetry of Edwin Thumboo. In the first, the speaker stands as observer-biographer of the world of public affairs and shared space; in the second mode, the speaker of the poems comprehends that world from a point of view of lyric empathy, as part of a process of self-disclosure. Though the first mode yields poems of particular excellence, I suggest that it is the second, lyric, impulse that is fundamental, and more productive of poetry likely to be seen as occupying a central place in his oeuvre. A brief final section surveys what seem to be some new directions in Edwin Thumboo’s poetry.