The Eyes

Some poetry looks out at the world. Don Paterson’s The Eyes looks back, and gives the unsettling impression it has noticed more than you intended.

This 1999 Faber and Faber collection is sharp, lyrical, intelligent, and not especially interested in making the reader too comfortable. Paterson writes with a mixture of precision and mischief, moving between beauty, unease, wit, memory, desire, and those awkward private moments where the mind starts behaving like an unreliable tenant.

The poems are elegant without being soft, clever without merely showing off, and serious without insisting on a solemn face throughout. There is music here, but also teeth. A line may begin by sounding graceful and end by making you feel personally implicated, which is generally a sign that the poet knows exactly what he is doing.

This copy is in good condition, making it a solid reading copy of a modern Faber poetry collection with plenty of bite left in it.

Ideal for readers who like contemporary poetry that is polished, darkly observant, emotionally alert, and just faintly dangerous. The Eyes is the sort of collection that watches the watcher — which is rude, but effective.

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