Mark Doty’s poetry, celebrated in his collection Fire to Fire, captures the essence of profound life themes: the ephemeral beauty of nature, human mortality, and the transformative power of aspiration. His work effortlessly melds everyday experiences with elevated philosophical reflections, creating a poetic style that is both accessible and sublime. Through his inclusive approach to the sublime, Doty effectively shares the universal human struggle to reach beyond the ordinary, making his poems resonate deeply with a diverse audience.

The Democratic Sublime

Mark Doty’s popularity can largely be attributed to his “democratic” take on the sublime. He portrays ordinary people facing what he describes as “the raw fact of our inadequacy in the face of the world,” yet striving to connect with forces that transcend human limitations. This theme of sublimity is a consistent thread running through the eight volumes of poetry showcased in Fire to Fire. In the titular poem “Fire to Fire,” first published in School of the Arts (2005), Doty writes: “If I were a sunflower I would be/ the branching kind,/ my many faces held out/ in all directions . . . ” illustrating his vision of aspiration extending in various directions.

Theories and Apparitions

The collection’s first section, “Theories and Apparitions,” features new poems initially published in the UK as a separate volume. The opening poem “Pipistrelle,” named after Britain’s most common bat species, exemplifies Doty’s talent for embracing multiple perspectives equally. The poem reveals Doty’s tendency to diminish the sense of rivalry even among poets, as he and a friend capture their encounter with the small creature from different poetic angles. The poem begins with his friend’s description: “His music, Charles writes,/ makes us avoidable,” suggesting the bat’s sonar ability to navigate obstacles. Doty, however, envisions the bat as an “emissary of evening,” sent to deliver a message intentionally. He ponders the bat’s visitation: “Is it because I am an American I think the bat came/ especially to address me, who have the particular gift/ of hearing him? If he sang to us, but only I/ heard him, does that mean he sang to me?”

Engaging with Deeper Questions

In “Pipistrelle,” Doty uses a simple encounter to step into profound questioning and meditation. His reflective nature urges him to question the boundaries between experience and self-consciousness about that experience. He wonders if he is attributing too much significance to the bat’s presence: “Does the poem reside in experience/ or in self-consciousness/ about experience?” Despite this intense inward inquiry, the natural setting provides a calming influence, leaving him with a clear contrast between artful awareness and spontaneous nature. Charles’s call to “Listen to my poem” contrasts with nature’s subtle whisper, “A word in your ear, says the night.” Doty skillfully maintains the tension between these perspectives, advocating for diverse poetic expressions.

The Craft of Simplicity

Doty’s poetry is crafted with a simplicity that belies its depth and is characterized by unrhymed stanzas of two to four lines. This form, while seemingly artless, represents a return to formalism as a means to explore deep thought and emotion. Doty’s poetic practice is deliberate and considered, contrasting with the spontaneity of the Beat poets like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg. He favors a prolonged engagement with a poem to prevent settling for “what is familiar, the stories we already know, what we expect to hear from ourselves.” This approach reflects in the two-year composition process of his poem “In the Airport Marshes,” which ends with the contemplation, “How do you reckon your little music?”

The Intersection of Theories and Apparitions

Doty’s exploration of “theories” versus “apparitions” in...