Walking Toward the Sun

by Edward Weismiller

In 1936, 20-year-old Edward Weismiller became the youngest poet to win the prestigious Yale Series of Younger Poets prize. In this collection of poems, his youthful lyricism has given way to plainness of speech - even spareness. These poems are honest and unflinching, always striking in their prosody. They may remind some readers of Yeats, for they convey nobility in the face of old age, infirmity and disappointment. Weismiller sings powerfully about a world of loss, but he is never grim or despairing. The poet in old age remains hopeful, open to possibility, and always aware of beauty in the smallest places.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[David Anthony Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful surprise, wonderful collection. I must admit my ignorance-I had never heard of Edwar Weismiller, more to my loss. There are so many good poets wriiting. Weismiller died in 2010 and this seems to be his last pubished collection with only 2 others long out of print. Ted Kooser thught so highly of him and listed this poem as exemplery:

Sea Horse

You might think it would leap the waves
in a white fire of foam
racing, eyes mad with what might
be delight:

a runaway, or loosed from a god’s
team, galloping in its vast
pasture. But this one
was the size of a brooch, thin, and red-gold, and still.

The children had sent for it
from the Atlantic.
It arrived by air in a pouch of seawater containing
all it needed to sustain life as it crossed the continent.

Following instructions
we made it a small, nourishing ocean
in which it anchored itself upright
to a strand of seaweed, and, staring jewel-eyed

at nothing, slowly faded white
and died.

Such poignancy without bathos, craft without pretension, simple language without prosaism.

I wish I had met Weismiller's poetry before. I wish he had written more. I heartily recommend this collection.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quiet, non-solipsistic poems in the plain speech mode.

[Mills College Library]

811.52 W428w 2002