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Natural History
Dan Chiasson, hailed as “one of the most gifted poets of his generation” upon the appearance of his first book, takes inspiration for his stunning new collection from the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder.
“What happens next, you won’t believe,” Chiasson writes in “From the Life of Gorky,” and it is fair warning. This collection suggests that a person is like a world, full of mysteries and wonders–and equally in need of an encyclopedia, a compendium of everything known. The long title sequence offers entries such as “The Sun” (“There is one mind in all of us, one soul, / who parches the soil in some nations / but in others hides perpetually behind a veil”), “The Elephant” (“How to explain my heroic courtesy?”), “The Pigeon” (“Once startled, you shall feel hours of weird sadness / afterwards”), and “Randall Jarrell” (“If language hurts you, make the damage real”). The mysteriously emotional individual poems coalesce as a group to suggest that our natural world is populated not just by fascinating creatures–who, in any case, are metaphors for the human as Chiasson considers them– but also by literature, by the ghosts of past poetries, by our personal ghosts. Toward the end of the sequence, one poem asks simply, “Which Species on Earth Is Saddest?” a question this book seems poised to answer. But Chiasson is not finally defeated by the sorrows and disappointments that maturity brings. Combining a classic, often heartbreaking musical line with a playful, fresh attack on the standard materials of poetry, he makes even our sadness beguiling and beautiful.
“What happens next, you won’t believe,” Chiasson writes in “From the Life of Gorky,” and it is fair warning. This collection suggests that a person is like a world, full of mysteries and wonders–and equally in need of an encyclopedia, a compendium of everything known. The long title sequence offers entries such as “The Sun” (“There is one mind in all of us, one soul, / who parches the soil in some nations / but in others hides perpetually behind a veil”), “The Elephant” (“How to explain my heroic courtesy?”), “The Pigeon” (“Once startled, you shall feel hours of weird sadness / afterwards”), and “Randall Jarrell” (“If language hurts you, make the damage real”). The mysteriously emotional individual poems coalesce as a group to suggest that our natural world is populated not just by fascinating creatures–who, in any case, are metaphors for the human as Chiasson considers them– but also by literature, by the ghosts of past poetries, by our personal ghosts. Toward the end of the sequence, one poem asks simply, “Which Species on Earth Is Saddest?” a question this book seems poised to answer. But Chiasson is not finally defeated by the sorrows and disappointments that maturity brings. Combining a classic, often heartbreaking musical line with a playful, fresh attack on the standard materials of poetry, he makes even our sadness beguiling and beautiful.
- GenresPoetry
88 pages, Hardcover
First published October 11, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 25, 2025
During college I had one of these poems pinned to my wall—it’s nice to finally read the whole collection. Some of these are so fucking funny.
“It’s sunny somewhere, Dan. The sun is shining somewhere.” What a banger.
“It’s sunny somewhere, Dan. The sun is shining somewhere.” What a banger.
July 25, 2008
I stumbled upon this book my accident, really - a happy accident, it turns out. I got it via Book Mooch (which I highly recommend - www.bookmooch.com) in lieu of a book by Charlie Smith that the owner couldn't find. To be honest, I wasn't even going to read this, as all of the previous poems by Dan Chiasson I've read didn't do much for me. But once I started it I couldn't put it down. Natural History is really, really good. I am not in love with it, but I would say I have a crush. I especially like the way Chiasson writes in the 2nd person, something I do a lot and something that doesn't always sit well with some readers (or so has been my experience in workshops). I personally like the implicit intimacy of a "you" in a poem and I think poems like "Love Song (Sycamores)" do this very well:
I said, Stop there, but you followed me
even when I tore our bed to pieces,
I did that, I brought anger into the bower
and the sycamores became menacing shoulders.
I also love the poems about elephants, especially the bit about the elephant practicing his tricks at night in the dark - an image that has haunted me for years though I couldn't recall where I'd read it. I still can't recall, but perhaps it was in this very book. It's good to be haunted. I do recommend it.
I said, Stop there, but you followed me
even when I tore our bed to pieces,
I did that, I brought anger into the bower
and the sycamores became menacing shoulders.
I also love the poems about elephants, especially the bit about the elephant practicing his tricks at night in the dark - an image that has haunted me for years though I couldn't recall where I'd read it. I still can't recall, but perhaps it was in this very book. It's good to be haunted. I do recommend it.
October 15, 2007
I liked how self-referential these poems were... Chiasson's references to himself were both touching and cheeky. They drew clearly on an individual's set of influences, and I enjoy tracing a poet's preoccupations.
July 23, 2008
want to love it, don't love it.
but it does many things that i want it to do. it just never lifts off---
but it does many things that i want it to do. it just never lifts off---
November 6, 2024
Checked this volume out of the library upon getting the wonderful
The Sun
in my inbox as the Poetry Foundation poem of the day (95% of the poems of the day are rubbish, but it's still worth subscribing for the 5%).
I'd say this is the best piece in the collection, but I do like a lot the obtuse couplets which form the bulk of the verse on offer here. Chiasson's writing is always surprising, supple and sly, but sometimes slides into academic too-clever-by-halfness as he ropes in Randall Jarrell and Horace in ironic supporting roles. Wallace Stevens makes an appearance too, and at its best the poetry here is reminiscent of Stevens' playful, percussive probing at the warp of reality. Pliny is obviously the main inspiration, and his observation (quoted) of an abused elephant privately practising his tricks by night is so moving it lends real heft not just to the three elephant poems but the book as a whole.
I'd say this is the best piece in the collection, but I do like a lot the obtuse couplets which form the bulk of the verse on offer here. Chiasson's writing is always surprising, supple and sly, but sometimes slides into academic too-clever-by-halfness as he ropes in Randall Jarrell and Horace in ironic supporting roles. Wallace Stevens makes an appearance too, and at its best the poetry here is reminiscent of Stevens' playful, percussive probing at the warp of reality. Pliny is obviously the main inspiration, and his observation (quoted) of an abused elephant privately practising his tricks by night is so moving it lends real heft not just to the three elephant poems but the book as a whole.
August 30, 2020
Whimsical, non-sequitur. Sex, drinking, profanity, references to pop culture, humor. How does earning a Ph.D. from Harvard embolden one's poetry? Some playful moments, and some tired self-referential moments. The freedom of free-verse?
January 9, 2021
I read this for the first time years ago, maybe back in college. My best compliment is that so many little phrases from Chiasson’s poetry still rattle around in my head.
July 8, 2010
I'm glad, five years later, I revisited this poetry, and I'm unsurprised to find a mature and slyly humorous collection—no wonder it went over my head the first time around, a time when I was mostly stuffing my face with junk food poetics. I am amazed at the cohabitation in these poems of irreverence and solemnity. I am also amazed at Chiasson's ability to inhabit ancient voices and craftily appropriate them for his purposes: he often knows exactly why he is drawn to certain writers, and also knows who he is as a writer, typically amalgamating the two with success. The "Natural History" section is ferociously exact, melancholic and charming. From several angles, Chiasson is able to match the physical size of the elephant with suitably mountainous pathos. The final section balances ars poetica, narrative, and surrealism with circus-like dexterity—they're a chin-ful of plates that never so much as wobble. Hoorah.
November 18, 2008
Got this one as gift from a colleague. Was one of the better collections of contemporary poetry I have read in some time. Chiasson's poetry has a colloquial ease with an unobtrusive techincal mastery. If anyone typically bypasses the poetry aisle in the bookstore or online, not knowing where to start (beyond the Frost you read in high school)I would consider this a nice re-introduction.
June 1, 2009
Considering how much Roman poetry makes an appearance in this book, it's probably not a huge stretch to say that Chiasson's voice reminds me a lot of Horace. But I say this in that good way, where Horace takes the common and everyday and social, and makes you feel his attitude toward it, this attitude that is so florid and enthusiastic just for the love of feeling.
December 11, 2012
dan chiasson does things that i could never do in ways that make language exciting. i like that his language is straightforward but his images and allusions are dark mirrorways into things you might not see otherwise.
August 12, 2008
Natural History is a delight of a poem, and "Poem beginning with a line from Frost' is such a beautiful cascade...
I was suprised. Very pleasantly surpised. Rescue a copy from a bargain bin when you next come across it.
I was suprised. Very pleasantly surpised. Rescue a copy from a bargain bin when you next come across it.
January 17, 2009
The Guardian says it better than I ever could:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/...
February 21, 2009
My favorite modern poet. Years later, lines will drift back to me...
January 2, 2010
The poem about the elephant "practicing" blew my mind. Thanks Mr. Chiasson for introducing me to Pliny...I browsed most of his writings after reading this book.
October 16, 2010
A gorgeous collection of poems. Each was more marvelous than the next.
October 23, 2011
talented but irritatingly self-infatuated.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews