Wicked times : selected poems / Aaron Kramer ; edited and with a biographical essay by Cary Nelson and Donald Gilzinger, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kramer, Aaron, 1921-1997.

Contributor:

Nelson, Cary.

Gilzinger, Donald.

Series:

American poetry recovery series

Language:

English

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

lix, 377 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2004]

Summary:

This is the collected work of a major, versatile American poet passionately engaged with both public history and personal experience from the Holocaust and the Spanish Civil War to his love for New York City and his wife. The editors argue that his long poem sequence, Denmark Vesey, stands as the most ambitious poem about African American history ever written by a white American. Wicked Times includes previously unpublished poems and the first detailed account of Kramer's life, along with photos and extensive explanatory notes.

Contents:

Aaron Kramer: American Prophet / Donald Gilzinger Jr., Cary Nelson xvii

Part 1 A Consumer Culture

See America First! (1948) 3

Switch to Calvert (1948) 3

Encyclopedia (1948) 4

Treatment (1948) 5

Prayer (1963) 5

Progress (1986) 6

Part 2 New York, New York

Esmeralda (from "Coney Island") (1943) 9

April on Avenue C (1958) 9

Carousel Parkway (1980) 12

Part 3 The Poetry of Work

Ballad of Tom Mooney (1937) 25

Thought on a Train (1937) 26

The Shoe-Shine Boy (1937) 27

Work Day (1941) 27

Unemployed Song (1946) 27

Help Wanted! (1948) 28

from "The Minotaur" (1954)

Eight O'Clock Whistle 29

All Hail! 29

A Trick on Nick 30

In the Lunch Wagon 31

The Trap-Door Shuts 32

Five O'Clock Whistle 33

Song No. 1 from Santa Fe Night (a hobo fantasy) (1962) 33

Nick (1981) 34

Elegy for a Carpet Boy (1995) 35

Part 4 African American History and Struggle

Paul Robeson (1943) 39

Natchez (1943) 40

Isaac Woodard (1948) 42

The Seamstress (1950) 42

Denmark Vesey (1952) 44

The Bell and the Light (1954) 65

Blues for Emmett Till (1955) 70

Blues for Medgar Evers (1964) 72

Calvary: Philadelphia, Mississippi (1965) 72

St. Nicholas Avenue Blues (1967) 73

Judgment (1988) 74

Part 5 Friends and Family

Mother (1940) 79

The Rockabye Love (1943) 79

Serenade No. 1 (1948) 80

Serenade No. 2 (1948) 80

Prothalamium (1948) 81

Winter Song (1962) 81

Dogs (1964) 82

Uncles, No. 1 (1967) 82

For My Grandmother (1967-74) 84

Homecoming (1968) 86

Ghosts (1971) 86

Quebec (1972) 88

Granddaughter on Beach (1975) 89

Words (1975) 90

Thanksgiving Day (1978) 91

Now, Before Shaving (1979) 92

Matilda (1979) 93

Phone Call (1980) 93

On the Death of Someone Else's Grandchild (1986) 95

Home (1995) 95

Part 6 Elegies

Ernst Toller (1940) 101

Einstein (1955) 101

The Consummation (1961) 102

Rumshinsky's Hat (1961) 102

The Pigeons of Maspeth (1974) 104

Uncle (1980) 105

Bella (1980) 106

The Ides of March (for Allard Lowenstein) (1980) 107

Elegy for Muriel Rukeyser (1981) 108

The Chair: Notes for an Elegy (1983) 111

The Death of a Friend (1984) 113

Alfred Kreymborg's Coat (1991) 114

Part 7 The Loyal Opposition

Have You Felt the Heart of America? (1938) 119

The Breeze (1939) 121

May First 1940 (1940) 122

The Golden Trumpet (1949) 122

Ballad of Washington Heights (1949) 124

Patriotism (1950) 125

Monticello: A Jefferson Cantata (1951) 125

The Crucifixion (1954) 127

New Jersey

December 1776 (1954) 128

In Power (1960) 128

A Man Is on the Hill Again (1962) 129

Des Moines and Council Bluffs (1964) 130

Lullaby (1966) 131

Henry at the Grating (1968) 132

Loyalty March (1968) 133

The Bloodied Young: August, 1968 (1968) 134

Considering My Country (1968) 134

Fourth of July Dialog (1976) 135

Seven Days (1979) 136

In Wicked Times (1982) 138

All-Star Neutron Day, 9 August 1981 (1982) 139

Grenada Symphony: First Movement (1984) 139

Bitburg (1988) 140

Bhopal (1991) 141

Part 8 Against McCarthyism

The Soul of Martin Dies (1940) 145

Peekskill (1949) 147

Halloween (1950) 149

Is This the City? (1951) 150

October in "Freedom" Land (1952) 150

Visit (1954) 153

To the Silencers (1961) 153

Called In (1980) 154

Part 9 Judaica

To My People: (1940) 157

The Thunder of the Grass (1948) 157

The Hour (1954) 165

A Ballad of August Bondi (1955) 165

A Word of Thanks (1961) 176

The Rising in the Warsaw Ghetto (1962) 176

Night at the Concertgebouw (1968) 178

Zudioska (1970) 180

Gimpl (1972) 181

A Wedding in Los Angeles (1976) 182

View of Delft (1977) 183

Tour (1978) 184

Westminster Synagogue (1980) 185

The Dance (1980) 187

May 4, 1986: Austria Acquits Herself (1986) 189

1906 (1995) 190

Bath Beach (1995) 190

Part 10 A Century of Wars

A Song for Freedom (1940) 193

The Ballad of Two Heroes (1940) 194

Maria (1941) 196

France (1943) 202

Sunrise in Paris (1945) 203

Victory Comes to the Unbombed Cities (1946) 203

The Real Ogre (1950) 204

Panic (1950) 205

Prayer (1950) 205

Efstratia Nikolaidu (1952) 205

The Tinderbox (1952-54) 207

The Rebels of Greece (1954) 229

To a Dark-Skinned People (1967) 230

Newscast (April 20, 1967) (1968) 230

Part 11 Journeys

After the Tour (1961) 233

A Good Buy (1971) 233

Last Night in Brussels (1972) 235

The Last Supper (1972) 236

On the Way to Palermo (1973) 238

Victoria Station (1975) 245

My Mexico Is Not Your Mexico (1975) 246

In the Geneve Lobby: Mexico City (1975) 247

Mycenae: On Brushing One's Shoes in Athens (1975) 249

Location (1975) 249

At Four Minutes to One (1975) 250

Macedonia (1976) 253

Grandparents in London (1976) 255

Nafplion: Snapshot (1977) 256

Thessaloniki: Three Sleeps (1977) 258

Dogs of San Miguel (1978) 259

Visiting Hour: At the Swanholm, St. Petersburg (1978) 262

Sunday in the Square: San Miguel de Allende (1979) 263

Gilbert and Sullivan Night at the Proms (1979) 264

Toluca: The Friday Market (1980) 265

Delphi: Slide 62 (1980) 266

Herakleion: The Hidden Beach (1980) 268

Reunion (1980) 270

Indigo (1985) 271

Flood (1985) 273

Part 12 The Map of Spain

In the Land of Olives (1938) 277

Smiles and Blood (1938) 278

Garcia Lorca (1940) 279

Barcelona Celebrates Three Years of Franco (1943) 279

Guernica (1945) 280

Tidings from Spain (1962) 281

Barcelona (1978) 281

Madrid: Coming Home (1979) 283

Sevilla: July 18th (1979) 285

Granada: The Rose (1979) 288

Malaga: A Prayer (1980) 289

Cordoba: Nocturne (1981) 290

Granada (1983) 290

Madrid: The Ghosts of Its Defenders (1983) 291

Barcelona: The Last Night (1990) 292

Madrid: July 1978 (1991) 293

Granada: First Showing (1991) 294

Cordoba (1991) 295

Part 13 Runes, Riddles, and Darkness

The Flowers of Georgia O'Keeffe (1954) 299

His Something (1960) 299

Lesson (1961) 300

Lines on a Museum Postcard (1962) 300

Midsummer (1963) 300

Air for Bagpipe (1969) 301

The Redwing's Cry (1974) 301

Falling Asleep (1982) 302

Night Thoughts (1991) 302

Part 14 Poet's Work

Neruda in Hiding (1949) 307

Singing (1953) 307

Threnody (1956) 309

The Widower (1958) 310

And I Looked, and, Behold, a Whirlwind (1962) 310

Dialogue (1962) 311

The Count (1962) 312

To Himself (1963) 312

Sunday Morning (1964) 313

The Swan (1964) 315

To the Countrymen of Alfred Kreymborg (1966) 315

Not Being Yevtushenko (1969) 316

To the White Minority of South Africa (1988) 316

Paul Celan (1997) 317.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [371]-373) and index.

ISBN:

0252029186

OCLC:

53183456