More than twenty-five years after the appearance of his first Selected Poems, we at last have a magnificent new gathering of Mark StrandR...
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Mar 16, 2008
Trebro
rated it: 
I really don't remember who recommended this one to me, the problem with having too much on your to-read list. This is the second collection of Strand poems, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. I was talking to Tessa yesterday about how sometimes a "greatest hits" is the best thing if you're not overly fond of the poet in question.
This is definitely how I feel about Strand, a poet who writes poetry that, for me at least, is just okay. There are definitely some lines I like a More...
This is definitely how I feel about Strand, a poet who writes poetry that, for me at least, is just okay. There are definitely some lines I like a More...
Dec 14, 2007
Derek
rated it:
I know Strand should get the five stars given his reputation, but he is someone I find at times enjoyable and at times annoying. His earlier and most recent poems strike me as the most natural, while his Pulitzer Prize collection (Blizzard of One) is too overwritten for my tastes.
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Jun 05, 2011
Tanya
rated it: 
Loved it! I loved some of the poems more than others, of course, but overall a really fantastic collection. My favourite was the Monument, of which I'm going to reproduce a section here, but of course, an excerpt doesn't do it justice:
It has been necessary to submit to vacancy in order to begin again, to clear ground, to make space. I can allow nothing to be received. Therein lies my triumph and my mediocrity. Nothing is the destiny of everyone, it is out commonness made dumb. I am pa More...
It has been necessary to submit to vacancy in order to begin again, to clear ground, to make space. I can allow nothing to be received. Therein lies my triumph and my mediocrity. Nothing is the destiny of everyone, it is out commonness made dumb. I am pa More...
Jun 23, 2008
Mark
rated it:
A nice mix of the abstract, the philosophical, and the concrete. This collected work is one to study for the modern poet and one to read for pleasure for everyone else.
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Jul 20, 2011
Wonderful collection. Raw and passionate. The language is a bit more stripped making it less of the pretentious (but ultimately great) fare that was Blizzard of One. Overall the poems resonated with me as Strand has excellent ability to speak with an authentic voice.
Nov 18, 2009
Maria
rated it:
"Nothing will tell you / where you are. / Each moment is a place / you've never been."
Jun 18, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
I've got to stop reading books of poetry that span an author's career. When I read poetry, I read it intensely and carefully, so I tend to feel bogged down by so much of it. I liked his shorter, simpler works a lot--those which came at the beginning and the end. The more experimental works in the middle of his career, though, tended to feel heavy, and I had to put the book down for a while.
Mar 04, 2008
Jennifer
rated it:
"I think of the innocent lives
Of people in novels who know they'll die
But not that the novel will end. How different they are
From us."
Of people in novels who know they'll die
But not that the novel will end. How different they are
From us."
Jan 10, 2012
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Sep 26, 2011
