Literary studies: poetry and poets Books

Book SynopsisA translation of Pablo Neruda's early collections of odes, this book features poems that are addressed to hope and to gloom, to numbers and to the atom, to blue flowers and to artichokes. Reflecting the lucent, candid vitality driving Neruda's charming accounts, these poems celebrate things big and the small.Trade ReviewIn addition to vibrant translations of Neruda’s early odes, William Pitt Root has given us a fine introduction about why this gathering matters. In both the original poems and the translations, the high energy is exciting and clear. And having assimilated Neruda's seemingly off-handed style in what he calls these 'tall, slender poetic stalks,' Root has a world of gifts for us that's powerful and engaging." —James Hoggard, author, Triangles of Light: The Edward Hopper Poems and The Mayor's Daughter "Two great voices meet and dance in this sterling new translation. Bill Pitt Root is the perfect partner for Neruda. Pure joy." —Luís Urrea, author, Queen of America and The Hummingbird's Daughter "Sublime Blue is an extraordinary and very welcome collection of Neruda’s early odes, from those well-known in English to those unknown. Poet William Pitt Root has done a masterful job of bringing some of Neruda’s most enigmatic poems into English. Neruda’s majestic language and vision are rendered here with passion and eloquence. This is a true gift to poetry." —Marjorie Agosin, human rights activist and Luella Lamer Slaner professor of Latin American Studies, Wellesley College

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Book SynopsisCelebrating both the rebozo as a cultural icon of Mexico and the series of rebozo-inspired paintings by MexicanCalifornian artist Catalina Gárate, this bilingual collection of poems gives voices of strength, endurance, joy, and sorrow to the women of Gárate's paintings. The rebozo is considered a physical manifestation of Mexican womanhood throughout every stage of life and can be used as a tool of daily labor: a sling to carry children, a shield from weather or from prying eyes, an heirloom, and even a shroud. Inspired by each painting, these poems, in both Spanish and English, are accompanied by a historical explanation of the role of the rebozo in Mexican history, art, and culture.Trade ReviewRebozos: gracious labor of love, this bowing down/lifting up of generations of women and their exquisite unsung dignity, this sharing of spirit and artistry, carrying us all to 'the other side of tired.' Profound gratitude to the harmony of Carmen, Catalina, Hector, Rose, and Wings Press for their precious chime, echoing through homes and histories and neighborhoods, early mornings where the doves chant 'You, and You, and You.'" —Naomi Shihab Nye, poet and novelist, You and Yours "Many of us, regardless of age and gender will shed more than a few nostalgic and entrañable lagrimas savouring the heart wrenching poetry, while deeply sighing, musing on the rebozos' awesome beauty in this work, with their simultaneously evanescent and emotionally powerful appeal. Only our own wise women, Carmen and Cata can bring this ofrenda, of our very own 'quilt' culture, fashioned for aesthetics, seduction, as political statements, portabebés y más, and above all as individual and collective shields." —Martha Cotera, author, The Chicana Feminist"Each line, each brush stroke, each graceful movement of this creation celebrates the strength, glory, and power of woman. This beautiful book evokes revolution, but not the typical version of it. Rather this is a revolution of passion and compassion; of understanding and nurturance. This is a book of elated cultural fervor danced in a costume held so close to a woman's heart that it is her other skin: her rebozo. This book relates a revolution only women could lead." —Kathy Vargas, photographer and professor, The University of the Incarnate Word

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Book SynopsisThis book, written in 1957, arises from the encounter of two men: the American poet Samuel Hazo and the French philosopher Jacques Maritain. They met on September 12, 1956, at Maritain's home in Princeton, New Jersey. Hazo sought to engage Maritain's diffuse writings in aesthetics by bringing them into conversation with the great voices of the English literary tradition.

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Book SynopsisOffers a meditation on the relationship between the life of faith and the affairs of the world - a world that appears more fragmented even with the promise of technology to bridge communities. The poems remind us of our role as agents of change and that, when we take responsibility for this role, we are practicing an effective form of spirituality.

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Book SynopsisAn absorbing survey of poetry written in one of the most revolutionary eras in the history of British literature This comprehensive survey of British Romantic poetry explores the work of six poets whose names are most closely associated with the Romantic eraWordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Keats, Byron, and Shelleyas well as works by other significant but less widely studied poets such as Leigh Hunt, Charlotte Smith, Felicia Hemans, and Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Along with its exceptional coverage, the volume is alert to relevant contexts, and opens up ways of understanding Romantic poetry. The Romantic Poetry Handbook encompasses the entire breadth of the Romantic Movement, beginning with Anna Laetitia Barbauld and running through to Thomas Lovell Beddoes and John Clare. In its central section Readings' it explores tensions, change, and continuity within the Romantic Movement, and examines a wide range of individual poems and poets through sensitive, attentive and accessible analyses.Trade Review“It is a beautifully written and well-organized textbook, which will be of great value to undergraduates in English departments around the world…O’Neill and Callaghan are to be commended for the deft way they combine close reading and scholarship in these delightful essays” -- The Year’s Work in English Studies, Volume 98 (2019)Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgements viii Part 1 Introduction 1 Part 2 Timeline of the Late Eighteenth Century and Romantic Period 21 Part 3 Biographies 47 Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743–1825) 49 Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803–1849) 51 William Blake (1757–1827) 54 Robert Burns (1759–1796) 57 Lord George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) 59 John Clare (1793–1864) 61 Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) 63 Felicia Hemans (1793–1835) 66 (James Henry) Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) 69 John Keats (1795–1821) 72 Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) 74 Thomas Moore (1779–1852) 77 Mary Robinson (1758–1800) 80 Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) 82 Charlotte Smith (1749–1806) 85 Robert Southey (1774–1843) 87 William Wordsworth (1770–1850) 90 Ann Yearsley (1753–1806) 93 Part 4 Readings 95 First]Generation Romantic Poets 95 Anna Laetitia Barbauld, ‘Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq., on the Rejection of the Bill for ­Abolishing the Slave Trade’; ‘The Rights of Woman’; Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, A Poem 97 Charlotte Smith, Elegiac Sonnets 101 Charlotte Smith, Beachy Head 107 Ann Yearsley, ‘Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave]trade’; ‘Bristol Elegy’ 110 William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience 115 William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell ; The Book of Urizen ; ‘The Mental Traveller’ 124 Mary Robinson, Sappho and Phaon 132 Robert Burns, Lyrics 137 William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads 144 William Wordsworth, ‘Resolution and Independence’; ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’; ‘Elegiac Stanzas, Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm, Painted by Sir George Beaumont’; ‘Surprized by Joy’ 152 William Wordsworth, The Prelude 163 William Wordsworth, The Excursion 174 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Conversation Poems: ‘The Eolian Harp’, ‘This Lime]Tree Bower My Prison’, ‘Frost at ­Midnight’, and ‘Dejection: An Ode’ 179 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ; Kubla Khan; ‘The Pains of Sleep’; Christabel 187 Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer and The Curse of Kehama 196 Second]Generation Romantic Poets 203 Thomas Moore, Irish Melodies 205 Leigh Hunt, The Story of Rimini 211 Lord Byron, Lara ; ‘When We Two Parted’; ‘Stanzas to Augusta’; Manfred 215 Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage 223 Lord Byron, Don Juan, Cantos 1–4 232 Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab ; Alastor; Laon and Cythna [The Revolt of Islam] 242 Percy Bysshe Shelley, ‘Hymn to Intellectual Beauty’; ‘Mont Blanc’; ‘Ozymandias’; ‘Ode to the West Wind’; the late poems to Jane Williams 251 Percy Bysshe Shelley, ­Prometheus Unbound; Adonais; The Triumph of Life 260 John Keats, Endymion ; ‘Sleep and Poetry’; The Sonnets 268 John Keats, Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion 277 John Keats, The 1820 Volume 284 Third]Generation Romantic Poets 295 John Clare: Lyrics 297 Felicia Hemans, Records of Woman: With Other Poems 304 Letitia Elizabeth Landon, ‘Love’s Last Lesson’; ‘Lines of Life’; ‘Lines Written under a Picture of a Girl Burning a Love]Letter’; ‘Sappho’s Song’; ‘A Child Screening a Dove from a Hawk. By Stewardson’ 311 Thomas Lovell Beddoes, Death’s Jest]Book and Lyrics 318 Part 5 Further Reading 325 General Critical Reading 327 Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743–1825) 328 Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803–1849) 328 William Blake (1757–1827) 329 Robert Burns (1759–1796) 329 Lord George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) 329 John Clare (1793–1864) 330 Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) 330 Felicia Hemans (1793–1835) 331 (James Henry) Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) 331 John Keats (1795–1821) 331 Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) 331 Thomas Moore (1779–1852) 332 Mary Robinson (1758–1800) 332 Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) 332 Charlotte Smith (1749–1806) 333 Robert Southey (1774–1843) 333 William Wordsworth (1770–1850) 333 Ann Yearsley (1753–1806) 334 Index

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Book SynopsisA Companion to T.S. Eliot introduces a new generation of readers and educators to Eliot and covers the full breadth of his literary career. Chapters explore the powerful forces that shaped Eliot as a writer and thinker, analyze his body of work, and assess his oeuvre in a variety of contexts: historical, cultural, social, and philosophical.Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors viii Preface xiv Acknowledgments xvi Abbreviations Used for Works by T. S. Eliot xvii Part I: Influences 1 1 The Poet and the Pressure Chamber: Eliot’s Life 3 Anthony Cuda 2 Eliot’s Ghosts: Tradition and its Transformations 15 Sanford Schwartz 3 T. S. Eliot and the Symbolist City 27 Barry J. Faulk 4 Not One, Not Two: Eliot and Buddhism 40 Christina Hauck 5 Yes and No: Eliot and Western Philosophy 53 Jewel Spears Brooker 6 A Vast Wasteland? Eliot and Popular Culture 66 David E. Chinitz 7 Mind, Myth, and Culture: Eliot and Anthropology 79 Marc Manganaro 8 “Where are the eagles and the trumpets?”: Imperial Decline and Eliot’s Development 91 Vincent Sherry Part II: Works 105 9 Searching for the Early Eliot: Inventions of the March Hare 107 Jayme Stayer 10 Prufrock and Other Observations: A Walking Tour 120 Frances Dickey 11 Disambivalent Quatrains 133 Jeffrey M. Perl 12 “Gerontion”: The Mind of Postwar Europe and the Mind(s) of Eliot 145 Edward Brunner 13 “Fishing, with the arid plain behind me”: Difficulty, Deferral, and Form in The Waste Land 157 Michael Coyle 14 The Enigma of “The Hollow Men” 168 Elisabeth Däumer 15 Sweeney Agonistes: A Sensational Snarl 179 Christine Buttram 16 “Having to construct”: Dissembly Lines in the “Ariel” Poems and Ash-Wednesday 191 Tony Sharpe 17 “The inexplicable mystery of sound”: Coriolan, Minor Poems, Occasional Verses 204 Gareth Reeves 18 Coming to Terms with Four Quartets 216 Lee Oser 19 “Away we go”: Poetry and Play in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats 228 Sarah Bay-Cheng 20 Eliot’s 1930s Plays: The Rock, Murder in the Cathedral, and The Family Reunion 239 Randy Malamud 21 Eliot’s “Divine” Comedies: The Cocktail Party, The Confidential Clerk, and The Elder Statesman 251 Carol H. Smith 22 Taking Literature Seriously: Essays to 1927 263 Leonard Diepeveen 23 He Do the Critic in Different Voices: The Literary Essays after 1927 275 Richard Badenhausen 24 In Times of Emergency: Eliot’s Social Criticism 287 John Xiros Cooper Part III: Contexts 299 25 Eliot’s Poetics: Classicism and Histrionics 301 Lawrence Rainey 26 T. S. Eliot and Something Called Modernism 311 Ann Ardis 27 Conflict and Concealment: Eliot’s Approach to Women and Gender 323 Cyrena Pondrom 28 Eliot and “Race”: Jews, Irish, and Blacks 335 Bryan Cheyette 29 “The pleasures of higher vices”: Sexuality in Eliot’s Work 350 Patrick Query 30 “An occupation for the saint”: Eliot as a Religious Thinker 363 Kevin J. H. Dettmar 31 Eliot’s Politics 376 Michael Levenson 32 Keeping Critical Thought Alive: Eliot’s Editorship of the Criterion 388 Jason Harding 33 Making Modernism: Eliot as Publisher 399 John Timberman Newcomb 34 Eliot and the New Critics 411 Gail McDonald 35 “T. S. Eliot rates socko!”: Modernism, Obituary, and Celebrity 423 Aaron Jaffe 36 Eliot’s Critical Reception: “The quintessence of twenty-first-century poetry” 436 Nancy K. Gish 37 Radical Innovation and Pervasive Influence: The Waste Land 449 James Longenbach Bibliography of Works by T. S. Eliot 460 Index 463

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Book SynopsisFinalist for the 2022 Plutarch Award A "nuanced and insightful" (New Statesman) portrait of Britain’s most famous female poet, a woman who invented herself and defied her times.Trade Review"This superb biography rescues Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s work from the dustbin of Victorian sentimentality to which her poems have been wrongly consigned for the better part of a century. Peeling back layers of myth, misogyny and critical dismissal, Fiona Sampson allows us to see anew an extraordinary woman whose crowning book-length poem, Aurora Leigh, traces, for the first time in our language, the way a woman became a writer…Sampson’s engaging, deeply intelligent book, which at last gives Barrett Browning her due, is a profound inquiry, a vindication, and a delight." -- Mark Doty, author of What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life"Fiona Sampson’s vivid new biography gives us Elizabeth Barrett Browning as busy and ambitious rather than a swooning sleeping beauty…Sampson’s biography consciously mirrors her subject’s masterpiece, but then biography, she suggests, is itself a mirror that both reveals and distorts its subject…[B]eautifully told. It is high time that Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Aurora Leigh were once again household names." -- Frances Wilson - Daily Mail"[Two-Way Mirror] restores [Barrett Browning] to her proper place as one of the leading voices of the Victorian era…This book is an empathetic—and much-needed—reassessment which tells a fascinating story." -- Lucasta Miller - Telegraph"Sampson’s passionate and exacting biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a surprisingly compact volume, a bristling lyric sandwich of philosophy and action. It is also a page-turner." -- Martina Evans - Irish Times

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Book SynopsisNew Yorker • Best Books of 2022 The first full-color facsimile of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, the most influential poem in modern literature, in celebration of its centennial.Trade Review"First published in 1971, edited by Eliot’s widow, they revolutionized the understanding of the poem’s creation, by making apparent Ezra Pound’s outsized editorial role, including many ruthless cuts, and also the input of Eliot’s troubled first wife, Vivienne. These pages—some handwritten, some typewritten, with wordless loops and slashes scrawled across the text and brusque observations at the side—have become famous in their own right.... Few Eliot fans will be able to resist." -- New Yorker, "Best Books of 2022""The Albemarle receipts were not included by Valerie Eliot in her 1971 edition of the drafts of The Waste Land but have been added to this centenary edition, which seems aimed at the Eliot aficionado ready to pore over every scrap surviving in the archive and eager to discover new angles on a poem more exhaustively interpreted than any in the language—or rather languages, for it is the most polyglot of poems. This gala volume is the first to reproduce manuscripts and type-scripts in color and boasts of various ‘additional materials,’ namely those bills and the versos of three leaves: on one of these Eliot has jotted down a couple of cosmetic skin creams that he has been instructed to purchase for his first wife, Vivien, at a pharmacy on the Champs-Élysées, and on another a compressed account of the plot of The Duchess of Malfi. On the third, the verso of the ending of ‘A Game of Chess,’ Vivien has written, 'Make any of these alterations—or none if you prefer. Send me back this copy & let me have it." -- Mark Ford - New York Review of Books

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Book SynopsisCut These Words into My Stone provides an engaging introduction to this corner of classical literature that continues to speak eloquently in our time.Trade ReviewFor something to read in normal circumstances? Today it's Michael Wolfe's wondrous set of translations of ancient Greek epitaphs, Cut These Words into My Stone. A book Keats would deeply appreciate. A book to keep handy by bed or bath. -- Bill Berkson Harriet Cut These Words into my Stone is not a long book, but its short pages have a great balance between education and emotionally touching poetry. The translator's note, introduction, and chapter introductions are all deeply researched, but still accessible to a lay reader. -- Elizabeth Franklin Portland Book Review This pleasing volume should introduce a new generation of general readers to the important poetic tradition of the ancient Greek grave epigram... No previous English study of quite this scope exist. Choice A wonderful short volume on Greek epitaphs which will appeal both to the general reader and the specialist... I highly recommend this book as a solid introduction to the reading and translating of Greek epigrams, and as a useful reference for illustrating how poetic translations of ancient Greek can be beautifully rendered for the modern audience while still remaining loyal to the ancient Greek use of language -- Philip J. Smith Bryn Mawr Classical Review As you turn the pages of this modest-seeming book you begin to succumb to magic. Each of these epitaphs is a poem that opens a window onto a life in Antiquity... If you wanted to find a single volume that gives a sense of the genius of the ancient Greeks, and reflects their influence on the cultural life of subsequent ages, you would be pushed to find anything better than this. -- Alex Martin The Anglo-Hellenic ReviewTable of ContentsTranslator's NoteForeword, by Richard P. MartinI. Anonymous Epitaphs of No Known DateII. Late Archaic and Classical Periods: 600–350 BCEIII. Hellenistic Period: Age of Alexander, c. 323–100 BCEIV. The Millennium: Pagan Roman Empire, 100 BCE–99 CEV. Late Antiquity: Christian Roman Empire, 200–599 CENotesSelected BibliographyBiographies of the Poets

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Book Synopsis"The more we know of Eliot, the better."-Ezra PoundTrade ReviewThese volumes are not merely a monument to T. S. Eliot, they are a blazing demonstration of what literary criticism, at its best, can do for literature. -- John Sutherland Financial Times Monumental... In taking apart Eliot's poems to show where the parts came from, The Poems of T. S. Eliot: The Annotated Text demonstrates that it never was the parts which mattered, but the elusive magic which made up the whole machine. Times Literary Supplement ... So comprehensive and authoritative that one can't imagine their [the editors' notes and commentaries] being superseded... Times Literary Supplement ... One of the great achievements in the literary scholarship of our time. Times Literary Supplement These volumes force a reevaluation of the highs and lows of Eliot's gifts, one that will supersede earlier, outmoded interpretations of racism, anti-Semitism, and sexual inhibition and avowals of elitist or conservative slants... Essential. Choice Two all-comprehending new tomes... utterly authoritative. London Review of BooksTable of ContentsTitle PageThis EditionAcknowledgementsGlossaryAbbreviations and SymbolsCollected Poems 1909-19621. Prufrock and Other Observations2. Poems (1920)3. The Waste Land4. The Hollow Men5. Ash-Wednesday6. Ariel Poems7. Unfinished Poems8. Minor Poems9. Choruses from 'The Rock'10. Four Quartets11. Occasional Verses12. Uncollected Poems13. The Waste Land: An Editorial Composite14. CommentaryBibliographyIndex of Identifying Titles for Prose by T.S. EliotIndex to the Editorial MaterialIndex of Titles and First LinesAbout the AuthorsBy the Same AuthorCopyright

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Book Synopsis"I do not know for certain how much of my own mind he invented."-William EmpsonTrade ReviewThese volumes are not merely a monument to T. S. Eliot, they are a blazing demonstration of what literary criticism, at its best, can do for literature. -- John Sutherland Financial TimesTable of ContentsAn Autobiographical SketchTable of DatesGlossaryAbbreviations and Symbols1. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats2. Anabasis3. Other Verses4. Noctes Binanianæ5. Improper Rhymes6. Textual HistoryIndex to the Editorial Material in Volume IIIndex of Titles and First Lines

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Book SynopsisWhat if the religious themes and allusions in modernist poetry are not just metaphors?Following the religious turn in other disciplines, literary critics have emphasized how modernists like Woolf and Joyce were haunted by Christianity's cultural traces despite their own lack of belief. In Poetry and Theology in the Modernist Period, Anthony Domestico takes a different tack, arguing that modern poets such as T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, and David Jones were interested not just in the aesthetic or social implications of religious experience but also in the philosophically rigorous, dogmatic vision put forward by contemporary theology. These poets took seriously the truth claims of Christian theology: for them, religion involved intellectual and emotional assent, doctrinal articulation, and ritual practice. Domestico reveals how an important strand of modern poetry actually understood itself in and through the central theological questions of the modernist era:Trade ReviewThere is certainly no easy way to replicate the environment of the interwar period, but Anthony Domestico is to be commended for implanting such a desire in his readers. Perhaps some of these readers will be stirred to action. I for one would love to hold a contemporary equivalent to the Criterion in my hands, and I believe that Poetry and Theology in the Modernist Period succeeds in that it will make others want this as well.—Marginalia Review of BooksThis brief but substantial study details how contemporary theological debates were part and parcel of the wider intellectual climate of modernism, as well as a specific influence on poetry by T. S. Eliot, David Jones, and W. H. Auden. It is a welcome addition to recent work on the inescapable and continuing influence of Christianity at every stage of the modernist project.—Review of English StudiesI also recently read Anthony Domestico’s wonderful and revelatory critical book Poetry and Theology in the Modernist Period, which has much to say about whether poetry and theology can nourish each other (for many of the modern poets, Domestico argues quite convincingly, they certainly did).—Christian Wiman, SubtropicsDomestico knows his theology very well . . . He can illuminate the shape of a theologian's argument, as well as what was at stake in the historical context. By training his sights on those literary authors for whom theology mattered—and for whom theology meant dogma and revelation—Domestico does invaluable work.—Jayme Stayer, John Carroll University, Modernism/ModernityPoetry and Theology in the Modernist Period is brilliantly set up to offer an introductory yet complex view of the intellectual landscape of the inter-war period . . . it presents an energetic invitation to the next generation of auditors to join [Domestico] in taking seriously the relationship between theology and poetic style.—Laura McCormick Kilbride, Critical QuarterlyPoetry and Theology in the Modernist Period is a valuable addition to a growing body of criticism that challenges the narrative that modernism was resolutely secular. As this study shows, not only did some writers take contemporary theology seriously, but theologians had a marked impact on the works of T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, and David Jones . . . One of the great strengths of this illuminating and important study . . . is that its insights and approach will encourage others to continue the conversation.—Thomas Goldpaugh, Marist College, Modern Language ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments1. A Conversation between Philosophersand Artists2. The “Living Theology” of the Criterion3. T. S. Eliot, Karl Barth, and Christian Revelation4. Sacramental Theology and David Jones’s Poetics of Torsion5. Auden’s MeanwhileConclusion Notes Suggested Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisProviding a rare and creative sense of authority’s various faces, this collection of poems travels from intellectual and artistic power to philosophical, military, and imperial power; and above all, personal influence. The verse introduces the persuasiveness, complexities, and intrigues of “table talk”—a European tradition of informed and enlightened conversation that has virtually disappeared from the experience of North American culture. Commanding and informed in their own sense of purpose, these pieces evince a gentle curiosity for greatness, creating an engaging portrait of simple humanity, powerful minds, and memorable ideas.Trade Review“A penetrating examination in poetry of the intellectual might, ferocity, depth, and intrigue of the various forms of authority we encounter in power structures of all kinds, and [a] grand tribute to the elegance and terrifying force of great ideas.” —Bruce Meyer, Poet Laureate and author, Dog Days

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Book SynopsisIn exploring the topic of health, this collection of poetry tackles a crucial aspect of our lives—but one that is rarely a subject of contemporary art. Playful, satirical, surreal, yet unflinchingly humane, the poems introduce men with wands to patrol their neighborhoods, past selves smuggling themselves aboard airplanes, and unhappy people trying their luck on a psychological wheel of blame.Trade Review“[Uppal]writes poems for which she most likely would have been imprisoned, burnt at the stake, or shot in many countries in the world, both in the distant past and today. Luckily for us, here she is.” —Charles Simic, United States Poet Laureate“The poems bristle with startling imagery and sardonic humour.” —Toronto Star“Both witty and serious, attacking big questions while concentrating on small details.” —Contemporary Verse 2

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Book SynopsisIllustrating solitude, memory, and the consolations of art, this new volume of poetry explores a variety of concepts—such as the pull of the natural world, the loss of a beloved parent, an inherited family garden, and the claims of the imagination. From a Bartók piano concerto and characters in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard to celebrities such as Dolly Parton, the collection delves into these subjects and more with passionate detachment and surreal wit. A wide range of verse forms is utilized, including the villanelle, the elegy, and the contemporary sonnet.Trade Review[The author's] skill at his craft ensures that all his poems convey a subtle but incisive music; exquisitely paced, cunningly cadenced, they seem at times to sing themselves. These are highly sophisticated poems . . . . an extremely impressive and accomplished new collection." —Eric Ormsby, author, Fine Incisions

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Book SynopsisPresenting the most comprehensive selection of the famed Canadian writer’s verse, this anthology brings together all of Raymond Knister’s known poems—many of them in print for the first time—along with numerous letters and prose pieces. From pastoral compositions and alternate poetic versions to selected stories and essays, this collection demonstrates why the author was a truly influential personality in the modernist canon. The compilation contains works specifically chosen for their relevance to questions surrounding modernism, shedding light on a significant literary movement. A chronology, a list of anthologies featuring Knister, and an index of cited works are also included.Trade Review“What I appreciate most about this collection is its handiness . . . . It’s a great primer on Knister (and Canadian Modernism of the 1920s–1930s), produced with concision and with an eye to being readable and utilitarian.” —Stephen Cain, author, American Standard/Canada Dry“An example of the type of excellent literary history that Exile Editions has made a minor specialty of.” —George Fetherling, Vancouver Sun“[Knister’s] work is exemplified by simple straightforward stanzas about modern life and aims at the starkness of absolute truth. ” —Anne Burke, editor, Prairie Journal

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Book SynopsisPresenting a culmination of surrealist exercises, this collection of poems is based on words and phrases from Hebdomeros, the only novel ever written by painter Giorgio de Chirico. Through an assortment of verse, the novel’s protagonist is transformed into an irascible mini-dictator ruling over an unruly realm—perhaps a metaphor for the Self—upon which he attempts to impose ideas of order and beauty. "The Hebdomerous Suite" is accompanied by "the Bronzino Poems," which draw from both accurate and purposefully erroneous interpretations of Deborah Parker’s book, Bronzino: Renaissance Painter and Poet. The resulting pieces celebrate not only the formation of art but creation in general, bringing a greater awareness to global cultures and traditions.

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Book SynopsisThe banquet that is daily life is celebrated in this accessible compilation of poems that comprises the poet’s 12th collection, illustrating the loves, joys, and fears of the human race. The featured pieces explore the various things people consume—whether in the form of food or everyday experience—expressing the universal idea of “bread” in the form of poetry. Providing unique insights into what is otherwise overlooked, this series of poems delves into the simplest relationships and observations, offering sustenance for the emotions, psyche, and soul.Trade Review“Bruce Meyer is one of this country’s most prolific writers. His work explores that inherent interest in things taken for granted, and he brings to this subject the most original and absorbing point of view. This new work is immensely readable and unique.” —Marty Gervais, author, Afternoons with the Devil

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Book SynopsisIgnored by critics and readers of the time, these poems were written by Canadians who witnessed the horror of World War I first-hand, forming an anthology in which the forgotten experiences of a decade are finally remembered.Trade ReviewBarry Callaghan and Bruce Meyer have done yeoman service to Canadian literature with this volume." —Rex Murphy, host, Cross-Country Check-Up, CBC Radio One

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Book SynopsisAn unyielding fever of 103, the Sochi Olympics, and a state of inspirational semidelirium came together as Vladimir Azarov sat in front of his television, images swirled in his mind like a waltzing kaleidoscope. Memories from decades past were triggered as the Pussy Riot girls were being whipped by Cossacks.Marilyn Monroe of Some Like It Hot became his muse while he composed recollections: his first trip to Sochi in 1962; sitting with Henry Moore at his home in Much Haddam; discussing verisimilitudes with Pasolini, art with Frank O’Hara, film and acting with Leni Riefenstahl; shock at terrorists killing Israelis in Munich. As the 2014 Games ended, his fever abated. This remarkable book of poems arose from those two weeks.

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Book SynopsisThis remarkable collection of poems lures you in, at first to stand alone in the dark, but slowly there comes a hint of light from a crack beneath a door, then a riot of sensuous intensity as you open up to the beauty that lies between the folds of words, bursts of poetic energy that casts warm light over all shadows.From the Introduction by A.F. Moritz "What is this poetry like? There are not many precedents for it or bodies of work very similar to it in English…Bien's word hoard is all his own, though, the way he animates it, constantly connecting the outer with the inner, the familiar with the distant, the limited with the vast, the realm of thought with the realm of life, non-sentient things with sentient ones… There is scarcely a stanza in Bien's work that does not contain some instance of these extendings and plunges into each other performed by things and whole modes of existence. More notable still is the mysterious ease with which the poems admit the contradictions present in perceptions, emotions and desires. In a Time of No Song will impress readers with its poetry of pure sentience and godlike laughter… The mysticism of the source is here, but most of all, I think, we will remember the great enactments and themes of this book through its omnipresent, brilliant tributes to life. We'll keep it by us for its indelible celebrations… A dove lands on my shoulder, the unbearable weight of magicwhat shelters each moment in every other, dies and lives, homelessly on,an orchard of lovely berries singing on a dying treeand so all the while, so too, I sing, that which sings me, in a time of no song.

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Book SynopsisExtra Illicit Sonnets chronicles a love affair between a man and a woman of different complexions, cultures, continents, and generations, Sonia Fuentes of Andorra and Luca Xifona of Canada. She is Spanish in heritage; and he is Maltese. She is a Boomer and he is of Generation Y-Not. The poetry consists mainly of unrhymed – or blank – sonnets. It is transcendent and dangerous verse because it addresses humanity's most complex and volatile passion.Trade ReviewPowerful language fires poetry of Clarke in Traverse." —The Chronicle Herald

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Book SynopsisA lively collection populated by historical icons, each poem a story about the potency of imagination, territories, border-crossings of the mind – among them: the madness of a king who wants to be a swan, Michelangelo chiselling a heart that beats into his David, Tsar Peter with his three pet dwarfs acting as generals in the army, Vera Zasulich who became the world’s first woman terrorist, Robinson Crusoe hunting for the footprints of Friday, Michael Jackson pretending he is Marcel Marceau as he woos Marlene Dietrich in Paris.

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Book SynopsisSelected by translator Dasha C. Nisula, this unique volume traces the development of modern free verse that extends from Croatia on the Adriatic to Russia in the East. Included are early pieces from the West to East Slavic belt, with the majority of the works focusing on the Russian Whitmanist Vladimir Burich, and the contemporary master of free verse in Russia, Vyacheslav Kupriyanov. A volume that captures feeling, essence, rhythm, and depth through superb translations.

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Book SynopsisYoung's first book of prose on poetry is more than just another illuminating instalment of Graywolf's popular Art Of series - it's a manifesto. In it, Young makes a moving and sincere argument for the importance of what he calls recklessness' in art and poetry. 'Poetry is not a discipline,' he writes. 'It's a hunger, a revolt, a drive, a mash note, a fright, a tantrum, a grief, a hoax, a debacle, an application, an affect. We cannot make the gods come. All we can do is sweep the steps of the temple and thus we sit down to our desks.''

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Book SynopsisIn the World Enormous is a collection of poems engaged in transition, conversation and what falls between. They focus on a period that begins shortly before the death of Tomer Inbar's mother and ends after the birth of his twin daughters. In this, the poems constitute a way of thinking out of and about passing and starting again, taking things in their energy, rhythm and moment, including in words with their simultaneously infinite, immediate intimacy and enormity. They have a plangent, even restless, form, with Inbar tellingly indeterminate regarding the direction in which we read and connect and so being open to their engagement from bottom up or top down, moving this way and that, forward and back—though all in one piece. Thought as assemblage seems to sway to subtleties of moment as a momentum that defines a space and way to move through, as presence comes together to inscribe sense, experience or idea. Inbar writes, "These poems like their movement. I like how these poems move. Apart from the definitional, I find comfort in being present as things move. With sibilance. On their own volition. Taking the qualities of their construction along." More perhaps than this, these poems seem to compel us to think an impossible thought.

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Book SynopsisPoems Seven: New and Complete Poetry, the winner of the National Book Award, presents the life work of a giant of American letters, tracks a forty-year career of honest, tough artistry, and shows a man at nearly 80 years of age and still at the height of his poetic power. Dugan’s new poems continue his career-long concerns with renewed vigor: the poet’s insistence that art is a grounded practice threatened by pretension, the wry wit, the jibes at the academic and sententious, and the arresting observations on the quotidian battles of life. All the while he peppers his poems with humorous images of the grim and daunting topics of existential emptiness.

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Book SynopsisRobert Duncan (1919-1988), one of the major postwar American poets, was an adulated figure among his contemporaries, including Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, and Denise Levertov. Lawrence Ferlinghetti remarked that Duncan "had the best ear this side of Dante." His stature is increasingly recognized as comparable to that of Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, H.D., and Louis Zukofsky.   Like his poetry, Duncan''s conversation is generative and multi-directional, pushing out the boundaries of discourse. His recorded reflections are a means of discovery and exploration, and whether talking with a college student or a fellow poet, he was fully engaged and open to new thoughts as they emerged. The exchanges in this book are exciting and lively.   His vast and wide-ranging knowledge offers readers an increased understanding of the interrelations of the arts, history, psychology, and science; those who would like to learn about Duncan''s own life, his bravery in being an out gay man well before Stonewall, and his friendships with fellow writers, such as Charles Olson, Jack Spicer, and Kenneth Rexroth, will find this book richly rewarding.   The six volumes of Duncan''s collected writings are being issued by the University of California Press. The collected interviews are an indispensable companion to these books, providing an in-depth exposition of his poetics, which center on the belief that the poem is "a medium for the life of the spirit." In A Poet''s Mind, he describes the genesis of some of his works, including that of books, essays, and individual poems, and also discusses gay love and life, along with the many diverse influences on his work. Ducan''s fertile creative mind is also evident in these conversations: often coming back to Ezra Pound in these conversations, he gives one of the clearest expositions to be found anywhere on the scope and meaning of The Cantos. This volume also includes a number of photographs never before published.

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Book SynopsisGilbert Highet was a legendary teacher at Columbia University, admired both for his scholarship and his charisma as a lecturer. Poets in a Landscape is his delightful exploration of Latin literature and the Italian landscape. As Highet writes in his introduction, “I have endeavored to recall some of the greatest Roman poets by describing the places were they lived, recreating their characters and evoking the essence of their work.” The poets are Catullus, Vergil, Propertius, Horace, Tibullus, Ovid, and Juvenal. Highet brings them life, setting them in their historical context and locating them in the physical world, while also offering crisp modern translations of the poets’ finest work. The result is an entirely sui generis amalgam of travel writing, biography, criticism, and pure poetry—altogether an unexcelled introduction to the world of the classics.

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Book SynopsisNORWAY, 1894Olav -- son of Erik Bjørnsson -- seventeen,swung his father's scythe and dreamed:The singing scythe Grandfather Bjørn had madeand honed each time he found a bit of shadeand passed on to his oldest sonto pass on to his oldest sonto pass until there were no longer sons --the scythe hissed like the grains of sand on the beachthat hiss when a wave falls back and the bubbles burst.The wind that whispered through the grainand dried the sweat upon his arms and chestbore from the west the scent of saltand the distant rumble of the Norwegian Sea. The Viking Age began more than a thousand years ago when the ancient Norse perfected their swift-sailing, dragon-headed longships. Young men, and later whole families, left Norway's rugged fiords in search of open land, trade, treasure, or fame. Many others took to the unknown sea simply because something vague and irresistible beckoned to them. They settled islands all across the North Atlantic and landed in North America more than four hundred years before Columbus. Their exploits are recounted in the ancient Norse sagas. A Dream of Dragons is a proper and modern Norse saga, written with all the power of Melville and Hemingway and a true story now retold in the ageless rhythms of blank verse, as irresistible as the beautiful and specially commissioned woodcuts of Mary Azarian.

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Book SynopsisJames Merrill described Elizabeth Bishop’s poems as “more wryly radiant, more touching, more unaffectedly intelligent than any written in our lifetime” and called her “our greatest national treasure.” Robert Lowell said, “I enjoy her poems more than anybody else’s.” Long before a wider public was aware of Bishop’s work, her fellow poets expressed astonished admiration of her formal rigor, fiercely observant eye, emotional intimacy, and sometimes eccentric flights of imagination. Today she is recognized as one of America’s great poets of the twentieth century.This unprecedented collection offers a full-scale presentation of a writer of startling originality, at once passionate and reticent, adventurous and perfectionist. It presents all the poetry that Elizabeth Bishop published in her lifetime, in such classic volumes as North & South, A Cold Spring, Questions of Travel, and Geography III. In addition it contains an extensive selection of unpublished poems and drafts of poems (several not previously collected), as well as all her published poetic translations, ranging from a chorus from Aristophanes’ The Birds to versions of Brazilian sambas.Poems, Prose, and Letters also brings together most of her published prose writings, including stories; reminiscences; travel writing about the places (Nova Scotia, Florida, Brazil) that so profoundly marked her poetry; and literary essays and statements, including a number of pieces published here for the first time. The book is rounded out with a selection of Bishop’s irresistibly engaging and self-revelatory letters. Of the fifty-three letters included here, written between 1933 and 1979, a considerable number are printed for the first time, and all are presented in their entirety. Their recipients include Robert Lowell, Marianne Moore, Randall Jarrell, Anne Stevenson, May Swenson, and Carlos Drummond de Andrade.LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

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Book SynopsisDennis Cooper is one of the most inventive and prolific artists of our time. Working in a variety of forms and media since he first exploded onto the scene in the early 1970s, he has been a punk poet, a queercore novelist, a transgressive blogger, an indie filmmaker - each successive incarnation more ingenious and surprising than the last. Cooper's unflinching determination to probe the obscure, often violent recesses of the human psyche have seen him compared with literary outlaws like Rimbaud, Genet, and the Marquis de Sade.In this, the first book-length study of Cooper's life and work, Diarmuid Hester shows that such comparisons hardly scratch the surface. A lively retrospective appraisal of Cooper's fifty-year career, Wrong tracks the emergence of Cooper's singular style alongside his participation in a number of American subcultural movements like New York School poetry, punk rock, and radical queercore music and zines. Using extensive archival research, close readings of texts, and new interviews with Cooper and his contemporaries, Hester weaves a complex and often thrilling biographical narrative that attests to Cooper's status as a leading figure of the American post War avant-garde.

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Book SynopsisFeaturing historic photos of the Chicano Movement in San Antonio and a new introduction, this is the 30th-anniversary edition of Carmen Tafolla’s first solo poetry collection. Having filled a cultural and linguistic void in 1983, when it was first published, this compilation showcases the poet's creation of a literary language from the natural Spanish and English code-switching of the barrios of San Antonio. Banned in Arizona along with many other multicultural books, this work celebrates bilingual and bicultural diversity and the power of individual imagination while simultaneously examining social inequities. Many poems from this book have been widely anthologized throughout the past three decades.Trade Review“Tafolla is a pioneer of Chicana literature.” —Ana Castillo, poet, I Ask the Impossible“A world-class writer.” —Alex Haley, author, Roots: The Saga of an American Family“Curandera is magic and wonder.” —Norma E. Cantú, author, Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera

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Book SynopsisFeaturing 25 drawings in charcoal, conte crayons, and pastels, this handbook pairs portraits of people who live and work along the U.S./Mexico border with bilingual poems that have been inspired by each of the drawings. A testimony to the people of the Rio Grande Valley, these drawings and poems capture their spirit, their quest for happiness, and their struggles to overcome economic hardship. This remarkable book highlights characters such as the "young street musician," the "six-year-old street vendor," and the "wise woman with rings." Compassionate and aesthetically compelling, this record raises awareness about social and cultural issues associated with border life, such as education, literacy, and poverty, and fosters cross-cultural understanding.Trade ReviewHurray for Steve and Reefka and the magical work they are doing crossing fronteras." —Sandra Cisneros, author, Caramelo and House on Mango Street"Such a kiss is this book that you oftentimes cannot tell which came first: the poem, it’s translation, or the art work." —Rene Saldaña, author, The Jumping Tree and The Whole Sky Full of Stars"In the tradition of an earlier era, Steve and Reefka Schneider have created a portrait of border life that utilizes both words and pictures to capture the moment." —Kathleen Alcalá, author, The Flower in the Skull

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Book SynopsisSan Antonio poet laureate Carmen Tafolla captures her hometown—the city of her ancestors for the past three centuries—in poems that celebrate its history as a cosmopolitan multilingual cultural crossroads. Discover San Antonio's corazón in Tafolla's poetry, accompanied by historic and contemporary photographs that convey its enduring sense of place.A century ago, San Antonio gave Oscar Wilde ""a thrill of strange pleasure."" J. Frank Dobie claimed that ""every Texan has two hometowns—his own and San Antonio,"" and Will Rogers declared it to be ""one of the three unique cities of America."" To Larry McMurtry, ""San Antonio has kept an ambiance that all the rest of our cities lack.""Carmen Tafolla calls forth the soul of this place—the holy home of the waters, called Yanaguana by los indios—and celebrates the many cultures that have made of it ""un rebozo bordado de culturas y colores.Trade ReviewTafolla is a pioneer of Chicana literature." —Ana Castillo, author, So Far From God"A world-class writer." —Alex Haley, author, Roots"In Tafolla's poetry, the disenfranchised speak for themselves in their own language." —Yolanda Broyles-González, author, Lydia Mendoza's Life in Music

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Book Synopsis"An exploration of the emerging Western consciousness of the mystery of existence, as seen through the work of the great American poets from Walt Whitman to Gary Snyder --a thrilling journey with today''s premier translator of the Chinese classics. DavidHinton sees in the West beginning in the nineteenth century the dawning of a larger consciousness such as seemed to happen in Asia much longer ago: an opening up of mind and heart to something infinitely more mysterious and inexpressible than previous concepts allowed. It''s an understanding that went against the grain of Western religion and philosophy up till that point, and for which Western models just didn''t apply. Because this perception didn''t fit the usual Western models, those who came up againstit grappled with ways to express it. David holds that the first expressions of this dawning consciousness emerged among the great American poets, whose expression of the mystery often has an experimental freshness to it, as it comes from the period before things get conceptualized and codified. He takes us on a journey through the work of fifteen American poets in whose work he sees the Great Matter expressed, providing with each chapter a sampling of their work"--

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Book SynopsisThe truth is revealed behind Longfellow''s famous poem "Paul Revere''s Ride" in this historical middle-grade nonfiction book, perfect for fans of Steve Sheinkin. Now in paperback!Do you know how historically inaccurate "Paul Revere''s Ride" is? And do you know why? Author Jeff Lantos pulls apart Longfellow''s poem, tells the real story about Paul Revere''s historic ride, and sets the record right. Not only that, he lays out when and why Longfellow wrote his poem and explains how without it, many of us wouldn''t know much about Revere at all. This is Steve Sheinkin for the younger set, complete with an American mystery and a look at two important moments in the history of our country.A 2022 ILA Children''s and Young Adults'' Book Awards Honor recipient.

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Book SynopsisThese essays focus on the absence of the poetic imagination in much contemporary poetry and criticism. The retreat of poets into craft, gender, race, and so on has made poetry seem more like sociology than literature. Such lack of insight can be attributed to forces in American society that place undue emphasis on technique and identity rather than talent and vision, currently evident as well in contemporary popular music, dance, and art. There is a similar imaginative deficiency in the teaching of literature and in political oratory and social commentary.The consequence where poetry is concerned is the acceptance and anthologizing of work that relies on novelty or shock for notice. We are left with mere appearances instead of essences. In this collection, Samuel Hazo calls for a return to forms of expression in which poet and reader engage in a conversation that speaks to the human condition, where less is more—The Power of Less.

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Book SynopsisDana Gioia stands out as one of the most important poets, critics, and defenders of the arts in our day. His advocacy of the renewal of rhyme and meter in poetry, his work as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and his recent efforts to strengthen the role of Catholic artists in American life have made a great impact on our public culture over four decades. Poet and scholar Matthew Brennan provides a thorough introduction to the life and work of this living classic of American poetry.The Colosseum Critical Introduction SeriesEach title in the Colosseum Critical Introduction Series provides a thorough study of the life and work of an important American writer who has sought to renew the craft and deepen the intellectual and spiritual dimensions of contemporary poetry. Intended to be at once brief and compelling, these introductory texts will help readers find their way into some of the best voices in the literature of our day.

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