The book of a hundred hands : poems / by Cole Swensen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Swensen, Cole, 1955-

Series:

Kuhl House poets.

Kuhl House poets

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hand--Poetry.

Hand.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (143 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The hand is second only to language in defining the human being, and its constant presence makes it a ready reminder of our humanity, with all its privileges and obligations. In this dazzling collection, Cole Swensen explores the hand from any angle approachable by language and art. Her hope: to exhaust the hand as subject matter; her joy: the fact that she couldn't.These short poems reveal the hand from a hundred different perspectives. Incorporating sign language, drawing manuals, paintings from the 14th to the 20th century, shadow puppets, imagined histories, positions (the "ha

Contents:

Contents; Acknowledgments; One: The History of the Hand; The History of the Hand; The Prehistory of the Hand; The Hand Thinks; The Hand Defined: 1; The Hand Defined: 2; The Hand Defined: 3; Chirologia, or the Natural Language of the Hand; Of an Alphabet of Steppes; By the Eighteenth Century; A History of the Hand; The Hand as Historical; A History of the Hand; Two: Positions of the Hand; Grasp; Fan; Grip; Hold; Sigh; Juggle; Traveling; Glove; The Mechanics of the Hand; Three: Professions of the Hand; Case Histories: Physical Aphasia; The Hand as Lamp; The Hand as Anchor

The Hand that CaressesThe Hand as Origami; The Hand as 19th-Century Harbor; The Theater of the Hand; The Hand as Ideogram; The Hand as Window; The Hand as Mansion; The Hand as Sun God; The Hand Polishes; Expression; The Hand as Staircase; The Hand as Nest; The Hand as Mango; Four: Representations of the Hand; The Hands' Testament; The Hands Testify; The Hand Painted In; The Hand Sculpted; The Hand Etched in Glass; The Hand Sketched; The Hand Photographed; The Hand in Fresco; Five: The Anatomy of the Hand; Intro to the Palmar View; The Palmar View; The Palmar View, Continued; Palmar 3

Fingers 1Fingers 2; Fingers: Alignment; Alignment, Continued; Fingertips; The Hand: Lower View: Oblique; The Bevel Itself; Knuckles; The Thumb: Based On; The Intern's Problem; The Thumb, In Sum; The Hand: Branching Out; The Hand: Back View, Fingers Arches; The Hand: Other Arches; The Fist; The Anatomy of Trees; The Mechanics of the Hand; Six: American Sign Language; Signs; The Manual Alphabet; Understanding the Past, Present, and Future; Pronouns; Thinking and Feeling; Flood; Garden; Rain; Ghost (Holy); Deer; Evening; To Form the Simple Past; The Present Perfect: To Have; Sun; Animal

Seven: Shadow PuppetsThe First Movies; Birds; Birds; Birds; Advances in the Form; Eight: A Manual of Gesture: Public Speaking for the Gentleman (1879); Right Hand Descending Oblique Prone; Right Hand Horizontal Front Prone; Right Hand Ascending Lateral Supine; Right Hand Ascending Oblique Vertical; Both Hands Descending Lateral Prone; Nine: Paintings of Possible Hands; Wilton Diptych, 1395; Fra Angelico, Cell 7, San Marco, 1438-43; Dominique Ingres, Venus at Paphos, 1852-53; Auguste Rodin, Cathedral, 1908; Marc Chagall, Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers, 1912

Marcel Duchamp, Portrait of Doctor Raymond Dumouchel, 1910Rembrandt van Rijn, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicholaes Tulp, detail, 1632; Norman Bluhm and Frank O'Hara, Hand, 1960; Sean Scully, Landline Sand, 1999

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

ISBN:

9781587296475

1587296470

OCLC:

181552895