David Hamilton has produced a collection of stories rooted in medieval forms but with contemporary concerns. While a poem is a subject it is also a journey and takes the reader to a higher state of consciousness as music does. People now like to pigeon hole everyone but Hamilton aims for versatility. A writers have their own styles and certain themes and ideas are foremost but each book is also meant to be original and have different features from the others. It is interesting to discuss whether Hamilton has created his own genre in that he writes books of poems which have essential features in common and can be called concept poems. The concept is thematic and crosses over individual poems.Storyteller is told by Hamilton at the Storytellers Festival and features stories in verse which take us through imaginative worlds where we encounter real life experiences and thus on to a higher state of awareness. In his preface to Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth talked of the need to create his own audience for his new form, but here we are drawn into the train of poetry and find common experience we share.
This collection is slightly different in style and technique from the previous poetry books and incorporates songs and music which was stepping into the unknown It is developed from a primary idea in this case Storyteller which is inspiration, rather than rational development from a plan.
Readers of historical fiction, fact, and especially Shakespeare fans, I'm sure, will enjoy this book. It's very educational. If published online, American readers will probably be the largest audience. I'm sure they'll enjoy the Englishness of it, especially well-educated academics for the exquisite use of language.
