Each of these Late Quatrains was originally a text-message composed spontaneously at the cellphone keypad. The Exercises are formal experiments in rhythm and metre, in the spirit of musical etudes. Taken as a whole, the collection, including the sonnet cycle Red Quartet, may be read as an attempt to reconcile the strictly formal concerns of poetic expression with the informality of existence, the true (in a literary sense) with the real, and the universal with the particular.

“This collection of carefully crafted quatrains (and several sonnets) is in turn witty, profound and enigmatic. At times elusive, the poems shimmer with possibility and reward close reading. The classical references are elegant and this collection should fully establish Bolton as a poet of great talent and promise”

Gus Ferguson

LATE QUATRAINS, EXERCISES AND COMPLAINTS

ROBERT EDWARD BOLTON

SMASHWORDS EDITION 2011