Vox’s books tagged poetry

If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

nobody@vox.com(guillemots) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:01:21 +0000

trans. Anne Carson

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Wild Iris

nobody@vox.com(guillemots) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:54:48 +0000

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Devoted Creatures

nobody@vox.com(BVE) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:42:16 +0000

Winner of the 2004 Tupelo Press prize, a notable collection, with a machine that goes ping.

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Love Poems

nobody@vox.com(loucindy) — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:07:25 +0000

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Born Palestinian, Born Black

nobody@vox.com(shehab) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 07:46:14 +0000

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Ashes for Breakfast: Selected Poems

nobody@vox.com(Only a Blockhead) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:22:16 +0000

A collection of poetry—particularly a selected or a collected—rarely has the narrative drive of fiction. There's no reason that it should. It's a different animal, after all. Every so often, though, one comes across a book of poetry that does pull one along just as joyfully, just as relentlessly, as does a well-told story. Durs Grünbein's Ashes for Breakfast is one of those, perhaps in part thanks to Grünbein's gift for a consistently conversational tone infused with worldly cynicism, humor, and learning lightly-worn. All of this is certainly on display in his ode to the city of my birth (can you guess what city it is?): "To be truly happy here, you need a dentist. 'Such a dazzling smile . . .' / Because happiness is the first duty of every citizen. / Whoever is happy, is unstoppable. Nothing so cheers the loser / as the successful sparklers." He can also be heartbreaking, though, as in an ode to the city of his birth, Dresden: "Nothing veiled anymore, history, / the hot, dusty wind that eradicates, / and I care. And in the name of what happened there / one gives up the Vermeer (burned) / and the Bach (disappeared). / Was it worth it? That whole cities, / from which the death transports rolled / became wastelands on Lethe's banks." That there is no easy answer to this question augments the poem's simple power. I can't judge the fidelity of Michael Hofmann's translations, but the versions he has given of Grünbein's work certainly read well. His introduction, too, is a lively reflection on the translator's art. Don't skip it.

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Fatherhood: poems about fathers (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)

nobody@vox.com(eliz. s.) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:48:15 +0000

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The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

nobody@vox.com(Catalina) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:47:29 +0000

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The Selected Poems of Federico García Lorca (New Directions Paperbook)

nobody@vox.com(Only a Blockhead) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:52:43 +0000

Reading Federico García Lorca reminds one that surrealism, in poetry, doesn't have to be facile, that stanzas like: "La muchacha de lágrimas / se bañaba entre llamas / y el ruiseñor lloraba / con las allas quemadas," can elicit and deserve reactions more heartfelt than "wow, that's weird." In W.S. Merwin's translation the passage above is: "The girl of tears / bathed among flames / and the nightingale wept / with charred wings." Like most of the renderings (by a variety of translators) in this edition it seems to me well-done, and was certainly helpful to me as I puzzled my way through the Spanish on the left-hand pages, enjoying García Lorca's music, even as the meaning, at times—before a quick glance over at the right-hand page—eluded me.

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natural history

nobody@vox.com(mcco12) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:05:13 +0000

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selected poems and prose of paul celan

nobody@vox.com(mcco12) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:46:04 +0000

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John Donne's Poetry (Norton Critical Edition)

nobody@vox.com(Chip) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:23:03 +0000

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Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Editions)

nobody@vox.com(Chip) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:21:48 +0000

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