Crater 36: January 2016 [sic]. Robert Sheppard, Petrarch 3. The Complete Petrarchs of our time and poetics are splendid, but what happens if you dig down and realise version after version of just one sonnet (Petrarch’s third), stuttering in repetition, re-staging it for voice and situation, from a Scouse dog at Christmas to Jimmy Savile beyond the grave; a twittersonnet or a lengthy semantic poetry translation; a French Symbolist version or a Middle English sonnet? Robert Sheppard’s pamphlet is what happens, leaving a performance of humour, excess, variation, and an uncanny undersong courtesy of Petrarch himself. Confusingly folded, full colour, £4 + p&p. Run of 200.
