The Methow River Poems

by William Stafford

Hard to Find book

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

William Edgar Stafford was an American poet and pacifist, and the father of poet and essayist Kim Stafford. He and his writings are sometimes identified with the Pacific Northwest.

In 1970, he was named Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position that is now known as Poet Laureate. In 1975, he was named Poet Laureate of Oregon; his tenure in the position lasted until 1990. In 1980, he retired from Lewis & Clark College but continued to travel extensively and give public readings of his poetry. In 1992, he won the Western States Book Award for lifetime achievement in poetry.


Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...

Reviews

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have come to realize that being the Poet Laureate for a state does not indicate you are a great poet. William Stafford's work has few of the marks described when people discuss great poetry. There is a dearth of brilliant insight, little grace of expression or interesting language, little in the way of metaphor, simile, or other constructions, the rhythms are pedestrian, and while few of Stafford's poems may be read as prose, they do not really read as verse, either. It's that he is bad. It that he is weak tea.

The best of the four books I have read is this, pensees while by the side of a river. I think that unity of the theme focused Stafford in a way he was not usually focused and upped his insight quotient. Any single poem in this collection may seem as weak as any single poem in his other collections, but they have a cumulative force that makes this book worth reading.