Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976-2006
To witness the maturation of a poet over time is one of the great pleasures of reading. Here Ellen Bryant Voigt gives us that narrative distilled and amplified, arranging selections from six previous volumes to culminate in transcendent recent poems.
Hardcover, 240 pages
Published
January 29th 2007
by W. W. Norton & Company
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
78)
I am not much of a poetry reader, and particularly contemporary poetry. I’ve read Ashbery and a little Hass—that’s about it, as far as books are concerned. So I don’t have much to go on for comparison, but I kinda liked a lot of Voigt’s poetry. Although it’s almost entirely without regular rhythm (I don’t see many pentameters), it’s still recognizable to this nonspecialist as poetry. Most of Voigt’s poems are lyrical, reflective pieces a page or a few pages long, or divided into sections of that...more
Incisive writing -- the kind of poems which draw depth from the ordinary, from music, image, nature, story.
What are our gestures? How do we see? What is it we expect from our words?
I have the sense of a well-read philosopher crafting intricate jewelry strung on a necklace.
In her 1987 The Lotus Flower, the epigram is:
Man is in love, and loves what vanishes—W.B. Yeats
What is it that we love, that makes us weep when it is in front of us (as in the man in Variation: Two Trees),
and weep when it is g...more
What are our gestures? How do we see? What is it we expect from our words?
I have the sense of a well-read philosopher crafting intricate jewelry strung on a necklace.
In her 1987 The Lotus Flower, the epigram is:
Man is in love, and loves what vanishes—W.B. Yeats
What is it that we love, that makes us weep when it is in front of us (as in the man in Variation: Two Trees),
and weep when it is g...more
I love the free verse here that retains a sort of meter of natural speech, though I think I might have liked a little more variety to the rhythms. Throughout the themes are life, family, nature, and the details of the day, but reflective always, and peaceful even in grief.
The tone throughout this book is mostly sentimental, and therefore not very engaging. Also, I do believe that there is such thing as too much detail in poetry. Oftentimes, overuse of adjectives and descriptors made the poems feel clunky.
I wish she had a sense of humour-very well crafted, most in a very serious mode
I had the privilege of meeting Ellen at Breadloaf this past summer. Her poetry is vivid, intense, and beautiful. She has quickly become one of my favorite poets!
view 2 comments
I love this woman's poetry.
May 15, 2013
C
is currently reading it
Apr 15, 2013
Josh
marked it as to-read
Mar 21, 2013
Diane Arieff
added it
Feb 01, 2012
Robin
marked it as to-read
Sep 15, 2011
Robert
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
poetry-writing-grammar
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
