- Table View
- List View
The Wilderness: Poems
by Sandra LimFrom the winner of the 2013 Barnard Women Poets Prize, chosen by Louise Glück, a daring and exuberant new collection. Moving through myths of the American landscape, the fatalism of American Puritanism, family history, New England winters, aesthetic theory, and the suavities and anxieties of contemporary life, the poems in this astonishing collection ultimately speak about the individual soul's struggle with its own meaning. "In its stern and quiet way Sandra Lim's The Wilderness is one of the most thrilling books of poetry I have read in many years" (Louise Glück). From "Aubade" From the last stars to sunrise the world is dark and enduring and emptiness has its place. Then, to wake each day to the world's unwavering limits, you have to think about passion differently, again.
The Wildness Pleases (Routledge Revivals): The Origins of Romanticism
by Christopher ThackerFirst published in 1983. This book charts the growth of Romanticism from the initial reactions to the authoritarian classicism of Louis XIV, through the ‘codification’ of the Sublime by Burke in the 1750s, to the fascination with mystery, fear and violence which dominated the writing of the late eighteenth century. The origins of the movement are found in the writings of Rousseau and admiration for the ‘noble savage’, the development of the landscape garden, discoveries in the South Seas, new approaches to ‘primitive’ poetry and enthusiasm for gothic art and literature. These attitudes are contrasted with the more classical views of writers like Samuel Johnson.
The Wilds of Poetry: Adventures in Mind and Landscape
by David HintonAn exploration of the emerging Western consciousness of how deeply we belong to the wild Cosmos, as seen through the lineage of modern America's great avant-garde poets --a thrilling journey with today's premier translator of the Chinese classics.Henry David Thoreau, in The Maine Woods, describes a moment on Mount Ktaadin when all explanations and assumptions fell away for him and he was confronted with the wonderful, inexplicable thusness of things. David Hinton takes that moment as the starting point for his account of a rewilding of consciousness in the West: a dawning awareness of our essential oneness with the world around us. Because there was no Western vocabulary for this perception, it fell to poets to make the first efforts at articulation, and those efforts were largely driven by Taoist and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhist ideas imported from ancient China. Hinton chronicles this rewilding through the lineage of avant-garde poetry in twentieth-century America—from Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound and Robinson Jeffers to Gary Snyder, W. S. Merwin, and beyond—including generous selections of poems that together form a compelling anthology of ecopoetry. In his much-admired translations, Hinton has re-created ancient Chinese rivers-and-mountains poetry as modern American poetry; here, he reenvisions modern American poetry as an extension of that ancient Chinese tradition: an ecopoetry that weaves consciousness into the Cosmos in radical and fundamental ways.
The Will to Change: Poems 1968-1970
by Adrienne Rich"The Will to Change is an extraordinary book of poems...It has the urgency of a prisoner's journal: patient, laconic, eloquent, as if determined thoughts were set down in stolen moments." --David Kalstone in The New York Times Book Review "The Will to Change must be read whole: for its tough distrust of completion and for its cool declaratives which fix us with a stare more unsettling than the most hysterical questions...It includes moments when poverty and heroism explode grammer with their own dignified unsyntactical demands...The poems are about departures, about the pain of breaking away from lovers and from an old sense of self. They discover the point where loneliness and politics touch, where the exercise of the radical courage takes its inevitable toll."--David Kalstone in The New York Times Book Review
The Willow Grove
by Laurie SheckLaurie Sheck interweaves the contemporary with the mythic, creating a realm in which such things as radios, skyscrapers, expressways, and mannequins are at once familiar and strange; immediate, yet tinged with the light of distance and myth. It is a realm where faces on a television newscast disappear "into the undertow / of hunger for the next thing and the next," and mannequins "stand in their angelic armor."Placed at intervals throughout these pages is a series of poems entitled "From The Book of Persephone," poems that explore the underworld through a fractured contemporary lens, depicting it as a psychological landscape of isolation and desire.As Mona Van Duyn said of Laurie Sheck's previous book, Io at Night, "When her sensibility and the reverberating myth are in perfect conjunction, the extraordinary happens: the mythical figure enters the poet's imagination so consumingly that it is impossible to tell whose life, whose feelings fill the form on the page."From the Hardcover edition.
The Wind Blew (Rise and Shine)
by Pat HutchinsA rhymed tale describing the antics of a capricious wind. <P><P>The wind blew, and blew, and blew! It blew so hard, it took everything with it: Mr. White’s umbrella, Priscilla’s balloon, the twins’ scarves, even the wig on the judge’s head. But just when the wind was about to carry everything out to sea, it changed its mind! <P><P>With rhyming verse and colorful illustrations, Pat Hutchins takes us on a merry chase that is well worth the effort. <P><P>Lexile Measure: AD520L
The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart: Poems
by Deborah DiggesThis breathtaking collection of poems by Deborah Digges, published posthumously, brings us rich stories of family life, nature's bounty, love, and loss--the overflowing of a heart burdened by grief and moved by beauty.When Deborah Digges died in the spring of 2009, at the age of fifty-nine, she left this gathering of poems that returns to and expands the creative terrain we recognize as hers. Here are poems that bring to life her rural Missouri childhood in a family with ten children ("Oh what a wedding train / of vagabonds we were who fell asleep just where we lay"); the love between men and women as well as the devastation of widowhood ("love's house she goes dancing her grief-stricken dance / for his unpacked suitcases, . . . / . . . / his closets of clothes where I crouch like a thief"); and the moods of nature, which schooled her ("A tree will take you in, flush riot of needles light burst, the white pine / grown through sycamore"). Throughout, touching all subjects, either implicitly or explicitly, is the call to poetry itself.The final work from one of our finest poets, The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart is a uniquely intimate collection, a sustaining pleasure that will stand to remind us of Digges's gift in decades to come.From the Hardcover edition.
The Wind Knocks and Other Poems
by Mohammad Alvi Baider Bakht Marie-Anne ErkiSelected poems of Mohammad Alvi in English translation from the Urdu by Baidar Bakht and Marie-Anne Erki. Introduction by Gopi Chand Narang, poems selected by Baidar Bakht. The very first poem, 'Empty House,' foreshadows the themes in the collection.
The Wine of Wisdom: The Life, Poetry and Philosophy of Omar Khayyam
by Mehdi AminrazaviThe intoxicating message of Khayyam's famous Ruba'iyyat created an image of exotic Orientalism in the West but, as author Mehdi Aminrazavi reveals, Khayyam's achievements went far beyond the intoxicating message within these verses. Philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and mystic - his many different identities are examined here in detail, creating a coherent picture of this complex and often misunderstood figure.
The Winged Energy of Delight: Selected Translations
by Robert BlyThe astonishing collection of the translations Robert Bly has been producing for more than fifty years, introducing foreign poets to American readers for the first time. Robert Bly has always been amazingly prescient in his choice of poets to translate. The poetry he selected supplied qualities that seemed lacking from the literary culture of this country. At a time when editors and readers knew only Eliot and Pound, Bly introduced Neruda, Vallejo, Trakl, Jiménez, Traströmer, and Rumi. His most recent translations include Rolf Jacobsen, Francis Ponge, and the nineteenth-century Indian poet Ghalib. Here, in The Winged Energy of Delight, the poems of twenty-two renowned and lesser-known poets from around the world are brought together. As Kenneth Rexroth has said, Robert Bly "is one of the leaders of a poetic revival that has returned American literature to the world community."
The Wings of Angels: A Memoir of Madness
by Sandy JeffsPlumbing the depths of human experience in her journey into madness, Sandy Jeffs shares her experience in this collection of poetry reminiscent of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. With stark dignity and intense fear, these poems cross into a realm where nightmares wrestle with dreams, death by devouring is a way station, and the underworld becomes a tourist destination. In the midst of this darkness, Jeffs's leavening sense of humor peoples her descent with the sirens of the supermarket, a high-tech, technicolor Armageddon, and a modern Cerberus with three heads: Ken, Barbie, and Ronald McDonald. Written with great insight into the experience of madness, this collection will intrigue all readers with an interest in the wayward workings of the mind.
The Winter Count
by Dilys LemanAlthough relatively few First Nations joined the 1885 Métis insurgence, the Canadian government reacted punitively, instituting draconian "Indian" policies whose ill-effects continue to resonate today. The Winter Count traces these developments alongside another narrative - the debate over the sanity of Métis leader Louis Riel. Dilys Leman weaves original poems and reconstituted archival texts, including medical reports, diaries, treaties, recipes, even a phrenological analysis, to create a montage that both presents and disrupts official history. Her narrative questions politically expedient myths that First Nations were allies of the Métis, would rise again in greater numbers, and needed to be scrupulously controlled to secure the opening of the West. Leman evokes the voices of historical and imagined characters to convey a political landscape teetering into lunacy and a government obsessed with its own vision of nation-building. We hear a bureaucrat extol the merits of the pass system, a court interpreter's ludicrous translation of treason felony into Cree, and Dr Augustus Jukes agonizing about his role on the secret medical commission tasked with reassessing Riel's sanity, which would determine if he could be executed. The Winter Count is a cautionary tale about moral responsibility. As Leman laments, our failure to be accountable human beings will surely haunt us: "Laudable pus / Political speeches / This water / brought too late / to a boil / Lance and forceps / rattling / their pot."
The Winter Count (Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series #30)
by Dilys LemanAlthough relatively few First Nations joined the 1885 Métis insurgence, the Canadian government reacted punitively, instituting draconian "Indian" policies whose ill-effects continue to resonate today. The Winter Count traces these developments alongside another narrative - the debate over the sanity of Métis leader Louis Riel. Dilys Leman weaves original poems and reconstituted archival texts, including medical reports, diaries, treaties, recipes, even a phrenological analysis, to create a montage that both presents and disrupts official history. Her narrative questions politically expedient myths that First Nations were allies of the Métis, would rise again in greater numbers, and needed to be scrupulously controlled to secure the opening of the West. Leman evokes the voices of historical and imagined characters to convey a political landscape teetering into lunacy and a government obsessed with its own vision of nation-building. We hear a bureaucrat extol the merits of the pass system, a court interpreter's ludicrous translation of treason felony into Cree, and Dr Augustus Jukes agonizing about his role on the secret medical commission tasked with reassessing Riel’s sanity, which would determine if he could be executed. The Winter Count is a cautionary tale about moral responsibility. As Leman laments, our failure to be accountable human beings will surely haunt us: "Laudable pus / Political speeches / This water / brought too late / to a boil / Lance and forceps / rattling / their pot"
The Winter Dance Party: Poems, 1983–2023
by David KirbyThe Winter Dance Party lays out, not someone’s entire life, but that person’s life as a poet. This enthralling, career-spanning book by the National Book Award finalist David Kirby is made up mainly of new poems along with a generous number of older ones alternating with one another in nine sections that proceed, not chronologically, but more like chapters in a surreal memoir, with long poems followed by short poems, exploratory formats next to more traditional ones, straightforward poems cheek by jowl with ones that are more allusive.
The Winter Sun Shines In: A Life of Masaoka Shiki (Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture)
by Donald KeeneRather than resist the vast social and cultural changes sweeping Japan in the nineteenth century, the poet Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902) instead incorporated new Western influences into his country's native haiku and tanka verse. By reinvigorating these traditional forms, Shiki released them from outdated conventions and made them more responsive to newer trends in artistic expression. Altogether, his reforms made the haiku Japan's most influential modern cultural export.Using extensive readings of Shiki's own writings and accounts of the poet by his contemporaries and family, Donald Keene charts Shiki's revolutionary (and often contradictory) experiments with haiku and tanka, a dynamic process that made the survival of these traditional genres possible in a globalizing world. Keene particularly highlights random incidents and encounters in his impressionistic portrait of this tragically young life, moments that elicited significant shifts and discoveries in Shiki's work. The push and pull of a profoundly changing society is vividly felt in Keene's narrative, which also includes sharp observations of other recognizable characters, such as the famous novelist and critic Natsume Soseki. In addition, Keene reflects on his own personal relationship with Shiki's work, further developing the nuanced, deeply felt dimensions of its power.
The Winter's Tale: A Commentary on the Structure
by Fitzroy PyleFirst published in 1969. Critics have in the past described The Winter's Tale as a work of "haphazard structure". More recent criticism has defended the structure of the play and this work shows that the evidence points to the fact that Shakespeare took infinite pains with the choice and disposition of the materials of The Winter's Tale. The scene-by-scene commentary considers The Winter's Tale in isolation, but prologue, epilogue and appendix place it in the context of related plays, and discuss, among others, the problem of genre as it affects the play.
The Wisdom of Omar Khayyam (Wisdom)
by The Wisdom SeriesA Persian poet&’s masterpiece While better known in his time for his mathematical and astronomical works, eleventh-century Persian philosopher and poet Omar Khayyam is best known today for his romantic poetry collected in the Rubaiyat. This selection presents 365 of the approximately 1,000 quatrains, translated from the original Persian. Khayyam&’s poetry draws readers in with its lush imagery and timeless observations on the human experience and the metaphysical mysteries of our world. As wise and intriguing as they are beautifully crafted, Khayyam&’s verse has inspired much Western art and literature.
The Wisdom of Trees: How Trees Work Together to Form a Natural Kingdom
by Lita JudgeWith lush illustrations, poems, and accessible scientific information, The Wisdom of Trees by Lita Judge is a fascinating exploration of the hidden communities trees create to strengthen themselves and others.We clean the air and seed the clouds, we drench the thirsty land with rain. We are like wizards.The story of a tree is a story of community, communication, and cooperation. Although trees may seem like silent, independent organisms, they form a network buzzing with life: they talk, share food, raise their young, and offer protection. Trees thrive on diversity, learn from their ancestors, and give back to their communities. Trees not only sustain life on our planet—they can also teach us important lessons about patience, survival, and teamwork.A New York Public Library Best Book of 2021A New York Public Library Top Ten Book for KidsGreen Earth Book Award LonglistAn ALA SustainRT Top 10 Sustainability-Themed Children’s Books 2022
The Wish Book: Poems
by Alex Lemon"To read this book is to meet a man who would climb the sky." —BOB HICOKIn his follow-up to Fancy Beasts, a book that &“slice[d] straight through nerve and marrow on its way to the heart and mind of the matter&” (Tracy K. Smith), Alex Lemon dazzles with his exuberance and candor. Whether in unrestrained descriptions of sensory overload or tender meditations on fatherhood and mortality, Lemon blurs the nebulous line between the personal and the pop-cultural. These poems are full of frenetic energy and images pleasantly, strangely colliding: jigsaws and bathtubs and kung-fu and X-rays. A carnival barker calls. A jellyfish celebrates a shaky adulthood. A sliding door shatters with the passing through of a body. And a heart is &“ecstatically / Torn apart like Twizzlers.&”Lean and muscular, The Wish Book is a collection of fireworks and wild emotion, defined by Lemon&’s distinct brand of poetic edginess.
The Wit In The Dungeon: The Life of Leigh Hunt
by Anthony HoldenHe was born in the year Dr Johnson died, and died in the year A.E. Houseman and Conan Doyle were born. The 75 years of Leigh Hunt's life uniquely span two distinct eras of English life and literature. A major player in the Romantic movement, the intimate and first publisher of Keats and Shelley, friend of Byron, Hazlitt and Lamb, Hunt lived on to become an elder statesman of Victorianism, the friend and chamption of Tennyson and Dickens, awarded a sate pension by Queen Victoria. Jailed in his twenties for insulting the Prince of Wales, Hunt ended his long, productive life vainly seeking the Poet Laureatship with fawning poems to Victoria. A tirelessly prolific poet, essayist, editor and critic, he has been described as having no rival in the history of English criticism. Yet Hunt's remarkable life story has never been fully told.Anthony Holden's deeply researched and vibrantly written biography gives full due to this minor poet - but major influence on his great Romantic contempories.
The Witness Of Poetry (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures #38)
by Czeslaw MiloszCzeslaw Milosz, winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature, reflects upon poetry's testimony to the events of our tumultuous time. From the special perspectives of "my corner of Europe," a classical and Catholic education, a serious encounter with Marxism, and a life marked by journeys and exiles, Milosz has developed a sensibility at once warm and detached, flooded with specific memory yet never hermetic or provincial. Milosz addresses many of the major problems of contemporary poetry, beginning with the pessimism and negativism prompted by reductionist interpretations of man's animal origins. He examines the tendency of poets since Mallarmé to isolate themselves from society, and stresses the need for the poet to make himself part of the great human family. One chapter is devoted to the tension between classicism and realism; Milosz believes poetry should be "a passionate pursuit of the real." In "Ruins and Poetry" he looks at poems constructed from the wreckage of a civilization, specifically that of Poland after the horrors of World War II. Finally, he expresses optimism for the world, based on a hoped-for better understanding of the lessons of modern science, on the emerging recognition of humanity's oneness, and on mankind's growing awareness of its own history.
The Wolf is at the Door: Tales of Courage
by The Editors at Scott ForesmanThis book is a interesting collection of poetry, essays, fiction and non-fiction work from various authors on courage and intends to encourage reading among young readers.
The Woman Downstairs
by Julie BruckWinner of the 1994 A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry (QSPELL, now the Quebec Writers' Federation) In The Woman Downstairs, eloquence joins intimately with an attentive and hungry eye. Julie Bruck explores the accidents and acquaintances of life, its small coincidences and occurrences, its unexpected meetings. With a passionate distance, Bruck blends the outside observer's cool embrace with a desire to know intensely life’s eccentric smallnesses, to gentle the beautiful out of the mundane. By turns witty and thoughtful, Bruck's writing is always graceful, always a delight.
The Woman I Kept to Myself
by Julia Alvarez75 poems weave together the narrative of a woman's inner life, Julia Alvarez's own clear voice that sings out in every line.
The Woman I Kept to Myself
by Julia AlvarezThe works of this award-winning poet and novelist are rich with the language and influences of two cultures: those of the Dominican Republic of her childhood and the America of her youth and adulthood. They have shaped her writing just as they have shaped her life. In these seventy-five autobiographical poems, Alvarez’s clear voice sings out in every line. Here, in the middle of her life, she looks back as a way of understanding and celebrating the woman she has become.