![]() ![]() 2008 is the 150th anniversary of the discovery of natural selection by Wallace and Darwin.Ī field trip that passed by Wallace’s birthplace near Usk on the Wales/England border triggered the author’s research into the scientist’s journeys through the Amazonian rainforests and the jungles of the Malay Archipelago as well as the lush landscapes surrounding the river Usk, which he explored as a child and young man. The title (meaning ‘burnt rocks or cooled lava’) is derived from the language spoken on the volcanic island of Ternate, in the Malay Archipelago, where Wallace experienced that ‘flash’ of inspiration which brought together his observations as a naturalist, leading him to describe his theory in a letter to Charles Darwin which encouraged Darwin to publish The Origin of Species. something adequate to dimensions / not yet begun, or dreamt of” “Such sudden terrors part / of the huge slow changes.”Īlfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), one of the most famous scientists of the 19th century and best known today as the co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution, is the inspiration for this beautiful sequence of poems by Anne Cluysenaar. Cluysenaar’s work articulates the tension between the slow evolution of a species and the scope and value of a single life, her writing at times attempting to reimagine the processes of natural selection as a kind of intensely personal experience – “I wish I could sense in myself some transformation. The writing moves from haiku-like evocations of the butterfly’s flight to a sense of immense measures of time – “This is the living form / of the rainforest’s age, an art / grown of its interactions / which now he has gathered up / into a triangle, dying, / that knowledge folded away”. “Poem VII” describes Wallace catching a clear-winged butterfly in the Amazon. Wallace made important journeys to the Amazon and Indonesia, and Cluysenaar’s delicate and graceful poems (framed with quotations from Wallace and images of the animals and plants he collected) deftly explore the channels that these journeys opened up. ![]() “This book is a fascinating exploration of the life of Alfred Russel Wallace, whose independent discovery of natural selection in 1858 triggered Darwin’s publication of The Origin of Species. ![]()
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