Auf ein Miniaturbild klicken, um zu Google Books zu gelangen.
Lädt ... Natural Historyvon Dan Chiasson
Keine Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
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. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
Aktuelle DiskussionenKeine
Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)811.6Literature English (North America) American poetry 21st CenturyKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
Bist das du?Werde ein LibraryThing-Autor. |
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. ( )