Wednesday, May 23. 2007
Help Me Find Poets II
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I would recommend Stan Rice’s "Some Lamb" (much of wich is about the death of his daughter from leukemia); Charles Jensen’s recent chapbook "Living Things"; Edward Hirsch’s "Lay Back the Darkness"; and Cecilia Woloch’s book-length poem "Tsigan."
Yes, I can see how you’d respond to Gluck. She is unrelenting in looking grief in the eye.
I find the Carolyn Forche’s "Against Forgetting" anthology effective.
I find the Carolyn Forche’s "Against Forgetting" anthology effective.
Thanks, Sherry. Forche and Wolloch are both names I know but not well enough.
Robert,
I will send more as I think of them, but In Memoriam comes to mind - I know it’s an oldie but relevant to my mind.
Miguel Hernadez is also someone I’d look at. A collected poems came out a few years ago and includes poems to his son who died young as well as a close friend.
These are two I had not thought of during our previous chat.
Kind regards, K
I will send more as I think of them, but In Memoriam comes to mind - I know it’s an oldie but relevant to my mind.
Miguel Hernadez is also someone I’d look at. A collected poems came out a few years ago and includes poems to his son who died young as well as a close friend.
These are two I had not thought of during our previous chat.
Kind regards, K
Robert,
I dunno if Keith already suggested this one, but David Ray’s "Sam’s Book" is a very moving collection of elegies for his son.
Brent
I dunno if Keith already suggested this one, but David Ray’s "Sam’s Book" is a very moving collection of elegies for his son.
Brent
Thanks, Brent. I keep hearing about that book - guess I should check it out.
Robert,
Congrats on a gruelling semester under your belt!
I enjoy reading your blog and I hope you don´t mind an undergrad hopping in to offer a few humble suggestions…
I am quite pleased to see that you´ve read ¨The Great Fires,¨ ¨Tear it Down¨ is one of my favorite poems by Gilbert.
I too spent a good ammount of time this semester dealing with loss. I took a great class called ¨Voices of Eros in Poetry¨ that closely examined Eros, its relation to poetry and how both are inherently lacking.
John Berryman´s ¨Sonnets to Chris¨ were difficult to take on for me, yet his obsessiveness and the brief feelings of excitement paired closely with lack added greatly to my semester.
Also, speaking of lack and loss, Sappho´s ¨If not, Winter¨ is a fine example of loss obviously because all of her words have not survived, but the Eros she speaks of constantly leaves me empty. For that matter, the translator, Anne Carson´s work: ¨Eros, the Bittersweet¨ is a fantastic book where she explains Eros and its inherent lack. She is a beautiful communicator.
I greatly enjoyed living in lack and loss this semester, I´m glad to have a kindred spirit out there!
Take care,
Reagan
Congrats on a gruelling semester under your belt!
I enjoy reading your blog and I hope you don´t mind an undergrad hopping in to offer a few humble suggestions…
I am quite pleased to see that you´ve read ¨The Great Fires,¨ ¨Tear it Down¨ is one of my favorite poems by Gilbert.
I too spent a good ammount of time this semester dealing with loss. I took a great class called ¨Voices of Eros in Poetry¨ that closely examined Eros, its relation to poetry and how both are inherently lacking.
John Berryman´s ¨Sonnets to Chris¨ were difficult to take on for me, yet his obsessiveness and the brief feelings of excitement paired closely with lack added greatly to my semester.
Also, speaking of lack and loss, Sappho´s ¨If not, Winter¨ is a fine example of loss obviously because all of her words have not survived, but the Eros she speaks of constantly leaves me empty. For that matter, the translator, Anne Carson´s work: ¨Eros, the Bittersweet¨ is a fantastic book where she explains Eros and its inherent lack. She is a beautiful communicator.
I greatly enjoyed living in lack and loss this semester, I´m glad to have a kindred spirit out there!
Take care,
Reagan
Thanks, Reagan. Lots of good stuff here. Dealing more with Thanatos than Eros these days, but hey - two sides of a coin. A Greek coin, I guess. Don’t be a stranger.
I’ve read somewhere that Canadian poets dwell preponderantly on "grief" and "loss’. What can I tell you we are a morose lot. It must have something to do with all that snow and hockey. So I’m going to recommend a Canadian poet for a change:
Pat Lowther’s: "A Stone Diary" (Oxford, 1977).
Pat Lowther’s: "A Stone Diary" (Oxford, 1977).
Ah yes, the morose contemplative sport of hockey. I feel ya, Nick. Thanks for the tip on Pat Lowther.
Just looked into Lowther’s life a bit more. What a strange and tragic story.
Just a quick note to say we’re moving over the Memorial weekend (this weekend - eek!) So if I don’t respond to say thanks for your suggestions, please accept my thanks in advance, and keep ‘em coming. I’m putting together my study proposal for Monday, but it’s just the proposal - can (and likely will) amend the reading list with my advisor.
Robert, for my money, the single finest elegy in the English language is by Carl Phillips: "As From a Quiver of Arrows." I think you could spend a semester on that poem alone.
http://www.cavecanempoets.org/pages/poems/quiver.html
http://www.cavecanempoets.org/pages/poems/quiver.html
I enjoy lists like this. Thank you for posting. Even those of us no longer in school will enjoy this.
Would it be too obvious to mention Milton’s "Lycidas" as a model elegy? You might also check Donald Hall’s Without and *The Painted Bed*; both are sequences for his late wife, Jane Kenyon, which are reminiscent of Ted Hughes’ *Birthday Letters*. I also really like Mark Doty’s My Alexandria and the poems of Donald Justice (everything he ever wrote was an elegy). Oh, and you can’t go wrong with John Crowe Ransom’s *Selected Poems*: chock full of grief and loss handled with restraint.
Thanks for the two Donalds and a Doty. Will definitely check this out.
David Wojahn. And Jake York’s Murder Ballads. One example from Jake that’s a favorite of mine: http://thediagram.com/3_2/york.html
THe Widening Spell of the Leaves (1991) and Elegy (1997) by the late Larry Levis.
It’s hard to track down in the US, but deceased British poet Michael Donaghy’s Conjure has some lovely elegies in it, especially "Annie" and "Haunts".
Thanks, Janet. Going back to London in August. Perhaps a trip to Foyles is in order.
OK, I’ve submitted this semester’s Study Proposal, including many of the suggestions on this thread. Thanks to all of you for your recommendations - and please keep them coming! The proposal is subject to change when I confer with my faculty advisor, and this topic is something I plan to keep exploring for some time.
The elegy has been on my mind. There are several I really like in a book called Blues for Bill, which is a book of elegies written for the late, great poet William Matthews. Particularly good in this book are Dave Smith’s "Coming Down in Ohio" and David Wojahn’s "Scrabble with Matthews." I really love Matthews’ poems (the best buy would be Search Party: Collected Poems), and the book of elegies is interesting, if for no other reason, because it allows us to see the various approaches poets have taken to memorializing one of our great contemporary voices. You might also check out Kevin Young’s For the Confederate Dead, a book which riffs off Allen Tate’s masterful elegy ("Ode to the Confederate Dead") and its sequel from Robert Lowell (For the Union Dead).
Thanks, Ryan. An anthology of elegies to the same person sounds like a great way to get different angles on the form.
