Mercury dressing : poems / J.D. McClatchy.
"Since the publication of Hazmat, a book about the life of the body - short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize - J. D. McClatchy's poetry has increasingly revealed a concern with the life of the soul. In this stunning new collection, he has his eye on figures both heroic and human, and, in vers...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Alfred A. Knopf,
2009.
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| Edition: | 1st ed. |
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| Summary: | "Since the publication of Hazmat, a book about the life of the body - short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize - J. D. McClatchy's poetry has increasingly revealed a concern with the life of the soul. In this stunning new collection, he has his eye on figures both heroic and human, and, in verse as quicksilver as it is authoritative, he returns to themes he has touched on before from new angles or an unusual perspective - the frame rather than the picture, the falling tear rather than the fresh sorrow." "The title poem captures the aloof nervous energy around the god Mercury, who hovers over other poems in this book, while the stunning long poem "Sorrow in 1944" tells the tale of Frank Pinkerton: the grown child of Madama Butterfly, raised by his father's American wife, now in love with a younger Japanese-American woman whom he visits in a wartime internment camp. The virtuosic "Trees, Walking" takes an obscure biblical story and weaves it into an eerie meditation on violence and redemption. McClatchy's impulse is to tell us the story after the story, the minor opera in the shadows of a great one, which nonetheless tells its own tale of the heart, bearing its own measure of tragedy and hope. He considers lost chances, botched miracles, soured utopian dreams, and the Seven Deadly Sins. Best of all, as in his most intense work from earlier books, he captures the subtle twists and turns of love, with its hard choices, recriminations, and aftermath." "With its emotional range, clear-sighted maturity, and formal elegance, Mercury Dressing is the finest work to date from one of our most significant and widely admired poets."--BOOK JACKET. |
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| Physical Description: | 96 pages ; 24 cm. |
| ISBN: | 9780307270658 0307270653 |