The selected poems of Howard Nemerov / edited by Daniel Anderson ; foreword by Wyatt Prunty.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nemerov, Howard, 1920-1991.

Contributor:

Anderson, Daniel, 1964-

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections

Language:

English

Physical Description:

xxi, 154 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Athens : Swallow Press : Ohio University Press, [2003]

Summary:

Howard Nemerov -- Poet Laureate of the United States, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, and Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets -- was one of the most prolific and significant American poets of the twentieth century. During his lifetime he published thirteen volumes of poetry, and a fourteenth followed shortly after his death in 1991. Judiciously selected and introduced by poet Daniel Anderson, The Selected Poems of Howard Nemerov represents the broad spectrum of Nemerov's virtues as a poet -- his intelligence, his wit, his compassion, and his irreverence. It stands as the retrospective collection of the best of what Nemerov left behind, which is some of the finest poetry that the twentieth century produced. "To keep his errors down to a minimum," W. H. Auden wrote, "the internal Censor to whom a poet submits his work in progress should be a Censorate. It should include, for instance, a sensitive only child, a practical housewife, a logician, a monk, an irreverent buffoon and even, perhaps, hated by all others and returning their dislike, a brutal, foul-mouthed drill sergeant who considers all poetry rubbish." Such are the readers to whom the poetry of Howard Nemerov might appeal. He distinguished himself on the landscape of American letters as a writer of great versatility. More than a decade after his death, that still holds true. In this, the only edition of Nemerov's work that surveys his entire poetic output, first-time readers of these poems will find an introduction to a truly remarkable creative mind. Longtime admirers of Nemerov will be reminded once again of his significance as a craftsman and philosopher, and as a poetic steward of the many ways in which we experience the world.

Contents:

From The Image and the Law (1947)

The Truth of the Matter 2

Observation of October 4

The Fortune Teller 5

From Guide to the Ruins (1950)

Guide to the Ruins 7

Elegy of Last Resort 8

From The Salt Garden (1955)

The Winter Lightning 11

Zalmoxis 13

The Pond 14

The Goose Fish 19

The Snow Globe 21

Central Park 22

The Market-Place 23

From Mirrors and Windows (1958)

The Mirror 25

Trees 26

The Town Dump 27

Storm Windows 30

Shells 31

The Statues in the Public Garden 33

A Day on the Big Branch 35

The Loon's Cry 39

A Primer of the Daily Round 43

Brainstorm 44

Painting a Mountain Stream 46

From New Poems (1960)

Moment 49

Runes 50

Going Away 60

The View from an Attic Window 62

The Icehouse in Summer 65

From The Next Room of the Dream (1962)

To Clio, Muse of History 67

A Spell before Winter 69

Goldfish 70

Blue Suburban 71

Burning the Leaves 72

Elegy for a Nature Poet 73

From the Desk of the Laureate: For Immediate Release 75

From The Blue Swallows (1967)

Landscape with Figures 77

The Human Condition 79

Beyond the Pleasure Principle 80

Christmas Morning 81

The Blue Swallows 82

The Mud Turtle 84

Summer's Elegy 86

For Robert Frost, in the Autumn, in Vermont 87

Firelight in Sunlight 88

From Gnomes and Occasions (1973)

On Being a Member of the Jury for a Poetry Prize 91

September, the First Day of School 92

After Commencement 94

On Being Asked for a Peace Poem 95

To D

, Dead by Her Own Hand 97

The Beautiful Lawn Sprinkler 98

From The Western Approaches (1975)

Einstein & Freud & Jack 100

Wolves in the Zoo 102

The Common Wisdom 103

The Dependencies 104

A Cabinet of Seeds Displayed 105

Again 106

Near the Old People's Home 107

Conversing with Paradise 108

An Ending 109

From Sentences (1980)

The Serial 111

Manners 112

Monet 113

Acorn, Yom Kippur 114

Morning Glory 115

The Dying Garden 116

A Christmas Storm 117

Easter 119

By Al Lebowitz's Pool 120

Because You Asked about the Line between Prose and Poetry 125

From Inside the Onion (1984)

A Spring of Dill 127

Wintering 128

Fish Swimming amid Falling Flowers 129

The Air Force Museum at Dayton 131

From War Stories (1987)

On an Occasion of National Mourning 133

Models 134

Night Operations, Coastal Command RAF 136

The War in the Air 137

The Afterlife 138

On Reading King Lear Again, 1984 139

From Trying Conclusions (1991)

To the Congress of the United States, Entering Its Third Century 141

Answering Back 143

Larkin 144

The Forbidden City 146

The End of the Opera 147

Trying Conclusions 148.

ISBN:

0804010595

0804010609

OCLC:

51553272