Christ Sonnets

This sonnet sequence illustrates a new poet's disassociation of his sensibility, from his immortal predecessors in Dante, Shakespeare, Milton and Joyce, and illustrates a theory of poetry, that Harold Bloom once termed the 'anxiety of influence'. Individual sonnets, within a body of one hundred and fifty, praise, for example, John Milton's 'poly-mouthed language proficiency', but also, tease James Joyce, as the 'nicens little boy of baby tuckoo'.The poet transcends his past idols, even informing Florence's Dante, that he sees 'his new Life, his Comedy' in 'The Christ Sonnets' and 'The Christ Colloquy'. Personal and autobiographical, but also featuring meditations composed on themes such as the baptism and the resurrection, the collection concludes, with the formed poetic identity of Andrew 'of the wood', fully prepared to sing new poetry for the Cross of Christ.