The World Below the Window
Poems 1937-1997
Published on 7. April 1998
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-8018-5859-8 (ISBN)
Description
The poems included in the "The world below the window", carefully selected by William Jay Smith, cover the entire career of one of America's acknowledged masters, a writer who deftly defies categorization. Smith melds an array of influence - from French symbolists to W.H. Auden and Wallace Stevens - into his own unmistakable voice, moving powerfully from the compressed, dark lyrics of his pre-war poetry ("Quail in Autumn") to experiments with a long free-verse line in the 1960's ("The Tin Can"). Here are memorable lyrics that capture the horror of World War II ("Dark Valentine: war poems") and hilarious light verse ("The tall poets") that exhibits the wit that has always enlivened even Smith's darkest works. Previously uncollected recent poems reveal the poet's tremendous range as he moves from discussing the ironies of age in "The shipwreck" to the dramatic intensity of "The Indian removal", a series of poems dealing with the forced removal of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore, MD
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
565 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8018-5859-8 (9780801858598)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Author of more than fifty books of poetry, children's verse, literary criticism, translation, and memoirs, and editor of several influential anthologies, William Jay Smith served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (a position now called Poet Laureate) from 1968 to 1970. His memoir, 'Army Brat', was praised by Eudora Welty and Ralph Ellison, among many others, and his translations have won awards from the French Academy, the Swedish Academy, and the Hungarian government. Two of his ten collections of poetry were final contenders for the National Book Award. His prize-winning children's verse is collected in 'Laughing Time: Collected Nonsense.' Poet-in-residence at Williams College from 1951 to 1961 and chairman of the Writing Division of the School of the Arts at Columbia University from 1973 to 1975, he is Professor Emeritus of English at Hollins College. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1975 and its former Vice President for Literature, he divides his time between Cummington, Massachusetts, and Paris.