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Jelly Roll: A Blues
by
Kevin Young
In this jaunty and intimate collection, Kevin Young invents a language as shimmying and comic, as low-down and high-hearted, as the music from which he draws inspiration. With titles such as “Stride Piano,” “Gutbucket,” and “Can-Can,” these poems have the sharp completeness of vocalized songs and follow a classic blues trajectory: praising and professing undying devotion (...more
Hardcover, 208 pages
Published
January 14th 2003
by Knopf
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Using a variety of rhythmic song forms, from “Cheer” (22) to “Ditty” (15) or “Country (& Western)” (79) to “Disaster Movie Theme Music” (84), Kevin Young’s third collection of poetry is an inspiring look at the intersection of music and poetry. The poems mostly deal with love and relationships, as seen through the shaded lens of an aged blues singer. But Young is a deft observer of current culture and he balances the melodramatic tone of his blues with humorous images and motifs from popu...more
I'm a sucker for that spare semi-autistic voice that Emily Dickinson invented well nigh 150 years ago, and Kevin Young's variation of it (inflected with Langston Hughes blues rhythms and John Berryman backwards grammar) is fun (!) and unique. These are not "difficult" poems by any means, but they are blunt, unrelenting, and re-readable (especially the lust poems at the beginning).
I wish his sense of humor didn't depart him so thoroughly in the death poems at the end, and t...more
I wish his sense of humor didn't depart him so thoroughly in the death poems at the end, and t...more
Lindsey
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Everyone.
Shelves:
contemporary-poetry,
2010
Favorites:
"Ragtime," "Stride Piano," "Errata," "Rhapsody," "Lyre," "Evensong," "Interlude," "Late Blues," "Elegy, Niagra Falls"
Excellent use of enjambment/line breaks; wonderful richness of "simple" language, beautiful arc. Best book of poetry I've read in a while.
"Ragtime," "Stride Piano," "Errata," "Rhapsody," "Lyre," "Evensong," "Interlude," "Late Blues," "Elegy, Niagra Falls"
Excellent use of enjambment/line breaks; wonderful richness of "simple" language, beautiful arc. Best book of poetry I've read in a while.
This is my favorite book of poetry of all time. I go back to this book whenever I need inspiration: the turns of words and phrases, the lust, love, and loss portrayed in the book, the imagery, all show what poetry is possible of creating.
I can see Young's influences and I think I get what he's going for. Still, the book just didn't work for me for some reason. I won't deny that it is a good book, just not the book for me it seems.
i really like poem books by famous worldwide authors. great authors. if you read this book
you will be amazed
Devin
Anglada 6/2/2009
you will be amazed
Devin
Anglada 6/2/2009
Gorgeous rhythmic poetry, sexy as all get out, sometimes funny, sometimes sad. I want all of Young's books RIGHT NOW.
Love. Poetry that oozes the blues. Language that rips out your guts. In a good way. For grown-ups.
i stumbled on this in the library at univeristy. my favorite quote: from the poem "boasts": Wouldn’t be no fig leaf/ if I was Adam/ but a palm tree./ Once I danced all/ night, till dawn/ & I—who never/ did get along—/ decided to call a truce—/ my body/ buckets lighter,/ we shook hands/ & called it blues./ Mama, I’m the man/ with the most/ biggest feet—/ when I step out/ my door to walk the dog/ round the block/ I’m done.
I absolutely hated this! It is was monotonous and boring. He loudly places himself in the "blues" poetry tradition (made famous by Langston Hues & Sterling Brown. He is young (as his name implies), but arrogant. It made me feel like this got published because it would sell well, versus actually being quality work. However, everyone has different tastes in poetry, so I'm sure some people loved it.
Kevin Young is one of the best poets I have ever read. You read the words on the pages with your eyes but they enter your head as music (dirty, gritty, blues). If I could I would wrap myself in his words and fall asleep to the rhythms that they create.
Reading it again. Something about this book I keep returning to.
Kevin Young is for anyone who likes poetry and jazz. You can hear the music in his lines.
smart, fun poetry
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Kevin Young is an American poet heavily influenced by the poet Langston Hughes and the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Young graduated from Harvard College in 1992, was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University (1992-1994), and received his MFA from Brown University. While in Boston and Providence, he was part of the African-American poetry group, The Dark Room Collective.
Born in Lincoln, N...more
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Born in Lincoln, N...more
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