Juxtaposing poetry with photographs, drawings, an interview and the reproduction of a dime novel, Ondaatje’s book is as much about the ways we represe...moreJuxtaposing poetry with photographs, drawings, an interview and the reproduction of a dime novel, Ondaatje’s book is as much about the ways we represent reality as it is about Billy the Kid.(less)
Along with On the Road and Naked Lunch, this is one of the central texts of Beat literature. Ginsberg’s line lengths, particularly in the title poem,...moreAlong with On the Road and Naked Lunch, this is one of the central texts of Beat literature. Ginsberg’s line lengths, particularly in the title poem, reflect the influence of Walt Whitman, and of the oral tradition in poetry. The title poem is a profound cri de coeur. (less)
For me, this is the most accessible of Blake's prophetic books, as it predates those later, more difficult texts in which he employs his personal myth...moreFor me, this is the most accessible of Blake's prophetic books, as it predates those later, more difficult texts in which he employs his personal myth of the four "immortals" to make his argument. The work is a great experiment in form: Blake shifts from verse to prose and back again, employing a number of literary modes, including the narrative, the lyric and the proverb. Moreover, this particular edition is of special value because it includes reproductions of all the engraved plates--pictures and text--of Blake's work.(less)
In long, Whitmanesque lines, and employing explicit language and graphic imagery of the body, Ginsberg writes poems in the confessional mode about mor...moreIn long, Whitmanesque lines, and employing explicit language and graphic imagery of the body, Ginsberg writes poems in the confessional mode about mortality and consciousness. The title poem is an elegy for the poet’s mother. “At Apollinaire’s Grave” is a graveyard poem. Several record Ginsberg’s experiences with drugs. (less)
Narrative poems in which unruly children come to unfortunate ends. We learn the dangers of toys, of illiteracy, of profligacy. The "Book of Beasts" se...moreNarrative poems in which unruly children come to unfortunate ends. We learn the dangers of toys, of illiteracy, of profligacy. The "Book of Beasts" section includes Belloc's classic on the hippopotamus. The text and pictures in the book are arranged so that frequently you only get the punchline when you turn the page.(less)
A selection from one of the finest poets of the twentieth century. Yeats writes about Irish myth, contemporary Irish politics, morality, the relation...moreA selection from one of the finest poets of the twentieth century. Yeats writes about Irish myth, contemporary Irish politics, morality, the relation of art to life, and, in his later work, poems based on a personal mythological system. These latter, including “The Second Coming,” “Sailing to Byzantium” and “Byzantium,” along with poems like “The Circus Animals’ Desertion” and “Lapis Lazuli,” are among his best.(less)
Brautigan writes about death, art, love, loss. He employs a colloquial language and understated style that contributes to the realism (and the irony)...moreBrautigan writes about death, art, love, loss. He employs a colloquial language and understated style that contributes to the realism (and the irony) of the situations he represents in these short poems. His focusing on ordinary events challenges the notion that somehow poetry is removed from the quotidian. Many of the poems, each less than a page long, have surprise endings: he takes the metaphors and similes he explores to places you might not expect.(less)
I first learned of Jim Carroll while watching the Ron Mann documentary Poetry in Motion. The film ended with Carroll reading "Just Visiting," a great...moreI first learned of Jim Carroll while watching the Ron Mann documentary Poetry in Motion. The film ended with Carroll reading "Just Visiting," a great prose poem from his The Book of Nods. Fear of Dreaming includes selections from that book, and from his earlier poetic work Living at the Movies.
Free verse in which the poet employs strong images to represent his experiences of heroin (needles and veins), Catholicism (saints and sacred objects, feast days), New York (the subways, the streets, the nights), Paris (Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire). Flora (the rose, the tree, the leaf) and nightmare fauna (snakes, dragons, insects). (less)
Although the jagged spacing of the lines on the page makes them look fragmented, these poems are linear in structure; Ferlinghetti builds the images a...moreAlthough the jagged spacing of the lines on the page makes them look fragmented, these poems are linear in structure; Ferlinghetti builds the images and urban scenes he describes through a careful amassing of details.(less)
Romantic subjects such as art, reality, imagination and perception from a modernist perspective. The book includes most of Stevens’s greatest poems; t...moreRomantic subjects such as art, reality, imagination and perception from a modernist perspective. The book includes most of Stevens’s greatest poems; those I return to most frequently include “The Snowman,” “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” “The Idea of Order at Key West,” “The Emperor of Ice Cream,” “Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction” and “Bantam in Pinewoods.”(less)
“A Season in Hell”: greatest frickin’ title ever, and if that seems unreasoning, that’s because it’s like rock and roll, you don’t have to reason abou...more“A Season in Hell”: greatest frickin’ title ever, and if that seems unreasoning, that’s because it’s like rock and roll, you don’t have to reason about it, and sometimes it’s better if you don’t. Rimbaud’s poetry is rock and roll, a hotbed of punk aggression. Graduate.(less)
North is a portrait of Ireland and can be read as depicting either a very primitive time (as suggested by the bardic qualities) or as being set in the...moreNorth is a portrait of Ireland and can be read as depicting either a very primitive time (as suggested by the bardic qualities) or as being set in the strange landscapes one finds in the work of Samuel Beckett. The language is rough, earth-bound, concrete, monosyllabic and rural, and references to bogs, fens and swamps may remind some of William Shakespeare’s Caliban (Shakespeare’s The Tempest). Some of the poems make reference to the political conflicts in Ireland and their effect on Heaney as a youth. (less)
Okay, I’m relieved to see I’m not the only one who did not get what this book was about. I would not call myself a Bob Dylan fan (I went to one of his...moreOkay, I’m relieved to see I’m not the only one who did not get what this book was about. I would not call myself a Bob Dylan fan (I went to one of his performances, but I don’t own any of the albums, and I’m familiar with only about half a dozen of the songs). But I am aware that he is a significant songwriter with some important things to say. So I thought that with Tarantula I’d be getting something comparable to other books by popular musicians (John Lennon’s In His Own Write or Patti Smith’s Babel). Or perhaps the book would include surreal passages as poetically suggestive as the lyrics to "Subterranean Homesick Blues.” The series of disconnected episodes in Tarantula is quite a ways away from either of these possibilities. While reading the book, I sometimes thought of William S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch, which is also a sequence of discontinuous scenes. In comparison to Burroughs’s controlled style and voice, Dylan’s work seems pretty rambling and incoherent. (less)
A selection of American writing from the time the Puritans landed to the beginning of the Civil War. It begins with histories of the early settlements...moreA selection of American writing from the time the Puritans landed to the beginning of the Civil War. It begins with histories of the early settlements, personal diaries and journals of the settlers, and their sermons and poems. This is followed by the revolutionary writings by Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Franklin(including the text of the Declaration of Independence). The latter 2/3 of the book includes work by the great nineteenth century writers: the guilty pleasures of Edgar Allen Poe, the romanticism of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the heroic individualism of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the profound conscience of Henry David Thoreau, the epic perspective of Herman Melville, the eccentricity of Emily Dickinsonand the democratic spirit of Walt Whitman. Obviously, one may comment on what was included and what was not—there is very little from James Fenimore Cooper and Harriet Beecher Stowe. There is only one chapter from Moby Dick (but if you had this anthology and a copy of Melville’s novel, you’d have a pretty good representation of American writing of this period). I think Joel Barlow’s 9-page poem “The Hasty Pudding” could have been left out. However, the book includes the texts both of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and of Thoreau’s Walden. Royal Tyler’s “The Contrast” is an interesting play with some metafictional devices that may remind some of Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello. Plus, the anthology includes letters by some of the writers represented, supplying an additional perspective on their work.(less)
In her comment on this volume, Adrienne Rich notes “the editorial care and devotion which has refused to plagiarize other anthologies….” That is, whil...moreIn her comment on this volume, Adrienne Rich notes “the editorial care and devotion which has refused to plagiarize other anthologies….” That is, while this anthology of American verse includes work by twentieth century poets such as T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, in most cases the poems in the book are not the ones you find in other anthologies (exceptions to this include the poems by e.e. cummings and those by Ezra Pound). At more than 700 pages long, this anthology also includes work by a good number of lesser-known poets.(less)
For me, this book is different from other anthologies of modern poetry in two ways. First, in addition to the usual suspects (T.S. Eliot, William Butl...moreFor me, this book is different from other anthologies of modern poetry in two ways. First, in addition to the usual suspects (T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, Dylan Thomas, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti), it includes work by Canadian poets like A.M. Klein, Earle Birney, [[author:Alfred Purdy|1577594], Margaret Avison, Margaret Atwood and BP Nichol. Second, at the end of the book are essays in which the poets discuss their “poetics”: their theories of poetry and their methods of working. I have had my copy for years and it has held up very well (although now I have second thoughts about the under-linings and marginal notes I added when I was much younger and reading these poets for the first time). (less)
Jumping on the keys of a typewriter, a cockroach is able to write poems about himself and his friend Mehitabel (a cat). Arguably a precursor of Beat p...moreJumping on the keys of a typewriter, a cockroach is able to write poems about himself and his friend Mehitabel (a cat). Arguably a precursor of Beat poetry. The consistent employment of the lowercase anticipates E.E. Cummings. Dominant themes include Egyptian mummies and Pythagoras’s theory of transmigration. (less)
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