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The Granite Pail: The Selected Poems
Poetry. Edited by Cid Corman. The section headings in this book of poems are all vintage Niedecker, but they stake out the poems in three large masses. The earlier work-apprentice to Zukofsky but finding her voice; the central work--when she discovers her range and depth; the final work--much of it known posthumously--showing how she was probing other voices into a larger...more
Paperback, 136 pages
Published
October 1st 1996
by Gnomon Press
(first published 1985)
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So I'm cheating-- I'm always going to be "currently-reading" Niedecker.
Why read Niedecker: I admire Lorine's poetics. Her motto: condensary (a process of taking away, taking away, considering, until you left with the essence of meaning.) Her work, has become part of my poetic lineage.
Why read Niedecker: I admire Lorine's poetics. Her motto: condensary (a process of taking away, taking away, considering, until you left with the essence of meaning.) Her work, has become part of my poetic lineage.
Jul 25, 2010
Gale Hemmann
added it
For those who love poetry, Lorine Niedecker's work is a quiet treasure. It is hard to believe that until recently she was left out of the Imagist/Objectivist movements in poetry (probably due to being a rural, isolated woman poet at the time). I find her work delightfully well-crafted, playful, and engaging. Definitely worth discovering her if you haven't already!
Based on this sampling of her poetry, one can conclude that Lorine Niedecker was many things. For one, she was the lucky possessor of what was apparently a happy childhood, someone who grew up in the bosom of a functional and loving family, and she wrote about her childhood memories warmly and rejoicingly. She was also apparently a "history buff," a poet who uses anecdotes and firsthand quotes from the great personnages of American history to illuminate her essentially wholesome view of what is...more
Dec 28, 2008
Gerardo
added it
This book is an amazing creation because Loraine's style trascends the common conventions of poetry. Her poetry is really short and direct. I really liked her caesura and her pauses which create an important rhythm in her poetry. "The Granite Pail" is an amazing collection of short poems...really good...
I started on Niedecker with this book and lived inside it for months. I had two overriding thoughts when reading this: how can she be this good? these are the best crafted poems I have ever read, these are actually poems. Niedecker singlehandedly taught me what a poem is as opposed to what poetry is and the serious difference between the two. She wrote poems. The second experience I had when reading her was a deep sadness that filled my heart and didn't leave for an entire semester. Her poems ar...more
This is one of my all time favorite books of poetry. It literally changed my life. I consider it a touchstone. The first fifteen pages or so contain tiny, momentary poems that I think even non-poetry-readers will find beautiful.
Very sparse and minimalist. If you like sparse and minimalist, this is a beautiful book. If not, you will probably chuck it across the room.
Some of the most unadorned, touching poetry I've ever read. Niedecker pulls together farming imagery and emotional arguments with only a word, lending her poems an unusual, piercing wallop.
lorine was one of the greatest of our american poets and her work continues to resonate...
Read at a little rocky beach in Maine-- Land's End I think. Pretty ideal.
Strange and quiet and faraway. She writes poems about evolution, water, plants, floods, birds, Thomas Jefferson. Often she is the only person in the poem, by dint of her writing it. Dispatches from somewhere the rest of the Objectivists would probably not recognize; the energy Zukofsky gets from NYC, she gets from her tiny flooded Wisconsin island, and yet there is almost a sense of the alien being nearly figure-out-able, with the haze of processing fogging the corners.
"All things move toward the light except those that freely work down to oceans' black depths. In us an impulse tests the unknown." -LN
So slim, so sparse, that I get nothing from it.
Where you been all my life, Lorine?
"something in the water
like a flower
will devour
water
flower"
like a flower
will devour
water
flower"
fun and lovely.
I have read this twice and I keep going back to
Lorine Niedecker.
Her poems seem simple but they are full of life and how she lived on an island most of her life amazes me. She did attend college but
her correspondence with William Carlos Williams and Louis Zukosky
interests me the most. I have read at least twice many 3 times
I love her work into poetry.
Lorine Niedecker.
Her poems seem simple but they are full of life and how she lived on an island most of her life amazes me. She did attend college but
her correspondence with William Carlos Williams and Louis Zukosky
interests me the most. I have read at least twice many 3 times
I love her work into poetry.
Unbelievably brief. One of the so called 'condensari.' These poems are great and spawned the greatest comment on Freudian psychology ever. Something like: "An owl lands on a fence post. What does it symbolize? An owl, landing on a fence post." Can't look it up right now. Will later.
Guess I don't like "imagist/objectivist" poetry. Thought I did, but just could not get into these. Most people who've read this on this site have rated this book highly, so my taste must be idiosyncratic... there was ONE piece of one poem I liked, and that was it, for 111 pages.
Feb 08, 2008
Kate
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people with tongues
Shelves:
poetry,
the-poetry-hopper
a fellow poet dropped this in my lap. the way ms. niedecker drops and cuts lines and ideas and carries them over from line to line.
the way she wrote about her parents' graves and a clothesline. of course i loved her.
the way she wrote about her parents' graves and a clothesline. of course i loved her.
I read this book right after first reading Oppen when I was 19 and the combo opended poetry for me. I like to think N teaches me how to listen with poems.
You can't say enough about Lorine Niedecker's unique production. She was an imagist objectivist of unique warmth and candor.
"Remember my little granite pail?
The handle of it was blue,
Think what's got away in my life---
Was enough to carry me thru."
The handle of it was blue,
Think what's got away in my life---
Was enough to carry me thru."
beautiful, concise, spacious, tidal, slow moving, haunting, poetry
poetry is condensation
May 06, 2013
Deb Quilhot eaton
marked it as to-read
May 20, 2013
Catface
marked it as to-read
Apr 16, 2013
Michael
marked it as to-read
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Niedecker's earliest poetry was marked by her reading of the Imagists, whose work she greatly admired and of surrealism. In 1931, she read the Objectivist issue of Poetry. She was fascinated by what she saw and immediately wrote to Louis Zukofsky, who had edited the issue, sending him her latest poems. This was the beginning of what proved to be a most important relationship for her development as...more
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