Karen Solie, a highly acclaimed Canadian poet, captures themes of neglect, decay, ugliness, and ordinary life in her work. Her early poetry delves into gritty scenes like run-down motels, broken cars, and kids playing in the dirt.
In her fifth book, The Caiplie Caves, Solie delves into the life of Ethernan, a seventh-century Irish hermit with little known about him. Ethernan is believed to have arrived in Scotland as a missionary and settled in the Caiplie Caves in Fife. Solie describes the caves as full of hermits, likening them to worms in cabbages, highlighting Ethernan’s crowded isolation.
The book explores Ethernan’s contemplation between leading an active or a contemplative life. Should he build a priory on May Island or remain a hermit in his cave? The poems raise questions about withdrawing from worldly concerns through poetry or religious reflection.
The collection features two types of poems: the Ethernan Poems, where Solie speaks through Ethernan, and the Karen poems, which feel more autobiographical. The Ethernan poems, written in a different style, showcase Solie’s talent in crafting thought-provoking verses.
Solie excels in portraying Ethernan’s internal struggles with self-abnegation and isolation without modern condescension. Her language is thought-provoking and engaging, showing Ethernan’s disdain for the world with delicate emotional calibration.
While Solie occasionally leans into typical North American lyric poetry conventions, such as using totalizing abstractions, it does not detract from the Ethernan poems’ excellence. Overall, The Caiplie Caves stands out as Solie’s finest work yet, delving into the complexities of human nature through the lens of an ancient hermit, leaving a lasting impact on readers.
