Poems
1962-2020
1st Edition
Published on 26. August 2021
720 pages
978-0-14-199802-2 (ISBN)
Description
A major career-spanning collection from the inimitable Nobel Prize-winning poet
For the past fifty years, Louise Glueck has been a major force in modern poetry, distinguished as much for the restless intelligence, wit and intimacy of her poetic voice as for her development of a particular form: the book-length sequence of poems. This volume brings together the twelve collections Glueck has published to date, offering readers the opportunity to become immersed in the artistry and vision of one of the world's greatest poets.
From the allegories of The Wild Iris to the myth-making of Averno; the oneiric landscapes of The House on Marshland to the questing of Faithful and Virtuous Night - each of Glueck's collections looks upon the events of an ordinary life and finds within them scope for the transcendent; each wields its archetypes to puncture the illusions of the self. Across her work, elements are reiterated but endlessly transfigured - Persephone, a copper beech, a mother and father and sister, a garden, a husband and son, a horse, a dog, a field on fire, a mountain. Taken together, the effect is like a shifting landscape seen from above, at once familiar and unspeakably profound.
For the past fifty years, Louise Glueck has been a major force in modern poetry, distinguished as much for the restless intelligence, wit and intimacy of her poetic voice as for her development of a particular form: the book-length sequence of poems. This volume brings together the twelve collections Glueck has published to date, offering readers the opportunity to become immersed in the artistry and vision of one of the world's greatest poets.
From the allegories of The Wild Iris to the myth-making of Averno; the oneiric landscapes of The House on Marshland to the questing of Faithful and Virtuous Night - each of Glueck's collections looks upon the events of an ordinary life and finds within them scope for the transcendent; each wields its archetypes to puncture the illusions of the self. Across her work, elements are reiterated but endlessly transfigured - Persephone, a copper beech, a mother and father and sister, a garden, a husband and son, a horse, a dog, a field on fire, a mountain. Taken together, the effect is like a shifting landscape seen from above, at once familiar and unspeakably profound.
Reviews / Votes
One of the purest and most accomplished lyric poets now writing -- Robert Hass No American poet writes better than Louise Glueck, perhaps none can lead us so deeply into our own nature -- Stephen Dobyns It is difficult to think of another living poet whose voice contains so much electrifying undercurrent, whose rhythms are under such control, but whose work is also so exposed and urgent. -- Colm Toibin * Guardian * A tremendous poet ... Louise Glueck has spent a lifetime showing us how to make language both mean something and hold everything -- Claudia Rankine * Guardian * Put together, these compact volumes have a great novel's cohesiveness and raking moral intensity. They display a supple and prosecutorial mind interrogating not merely her own life but also the sensual and political nature of the world that spins around it. . . . No other poet slices with such accuracy and deadly intent . . . Glueck is fearless. -- Dwight Garner * New York Times * Glueck is among the most moving poets of our era . . . This voice is not going to go away. -- Dan Chiasson * New Yorker * As with other great poets, Glueck does not invite paraphrase. Her poems at their best--and they are very often at their best--embody not just the rage to order, but also the rage to identify a 'truth' that no order can approximate or touch. -- Robert Boyers * Nation * Glueck is as important and influential a poet as we have in America . . . Glueck's work is all edges . . . the sharper ones can inflict heavenly hurt, where the meanings are. If you want to know about the last half-century of American poetry, you need to read these poems." -- Michael Robbins * Los Angeles Review of Books * You read a passage by Glueck and think, Ah yes, of course, this is how it is. She has the extraordinary writer's gift of making clear what is, outside the world of her poem, complex ... [and] a compassionate, comprehensive vision of human understanding and destiny. Her poetry, for all its huge distinction, its vibrant intelligence and its beauty, has never lost the ability to serve society, or the reader. -- Fiona Sampson * Guardian * Glueck is unparalleled in finding beauty in tribulation more so than any American poet since Emily Dickinson. -- David Biespiel * The Oregonian *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
File size
1,04 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-14-199802-2 (9780141998022)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Person
Louise Glueck is the author of twelve books of poems and two essay collections. Her many awards include the Nobel Prize in Literature, the National Humanities Medal, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Bollingen Prize, and the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets. She teaches at Yale University and Stanford University and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
