THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NIGHT AND DAY

This volume, winner of the 73rd Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition, carries the hackneyed themes of isolation and alienation in unusual new directions. Indeed, Ramke's treatment of cliche in general is ingenious. He is constantly rescuing an overused image or metaphor for some unexpected purpose, as when he discusses the difference between his conscious world and escape from it in the title poem (""The geography of dream is complex/ so I look to the stars, I live/ within a copper dome taking snapshots of God. . .""). Gifted with an extraordinarily sensitive ear, he often makes language handle not only literal subject matter, but an approximation of attitude, scene, or sentiment through sound (""A bit of the sea sounds delicately in one ear/when you cannot go to sleep, you wish/you were at home and the noise were Bach, Brandenburg,/ perhaps, in B-flat major. . .""). While most younger poets seem preoccupied with line breaks, Ramke's lines are his main concern; carefully constructed units which maintain the whole. Unorthodox and subtle: an impressive debut by a fine, young poet.