Pagan virtues : poems / Stephen Dunn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dunn, Stephen, 1939-2021, author.

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections

Language:

English

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

96 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, [2020]

Summary:

"Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Dunn returns with his signature morbid wit, intellectual daring, and emotive powers on full display. In this meditative and incisive collection, Stephen Dunn draws on themes of morality and mortality to explore the innermost machinations of human nature. Shifting in tone but never wavering in their essential honesty, these poems reflect on desire, restraint, and the roles we play in an ever- evolving society. A stunning sequence on the relationship between the speaker and "Mrs. Cavendish" examines an intimacy sustained and repelled by politics, philosophy, and attraction. Complex and evocative, Pagan Virtues offers indispensable truths from a master of contemporary poetry"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1

Close to Running Amok p. 7

After Experience p. 9

Origins p. 10

I Was Thinking p. 11

Nothing Will Warn You p. 13

Little Pretty Things p. 15

The Year before the Election p. 17

That Autumn p. 18

The Last Hour p. 19

The Undercover Man p. 21

Historically Speaking p. 23

Office Prayer p. 25

2

The Woman in the Blue Dress p. 29

3

An Education p. 39

The Face He's Working On p. 40

The Inheritance p. 42

The Errors p. 44

Pagan Virtues p. 45

The Normal p. 46

As If Chekhov had Written It p. 47

A Good Life p. 48

Misfortune p. 49

The Ghost Song of the Retiree p. 50

For the Historians Among Us p. 52

4

The Mrs. Cavendish Poems

Rachel Becomes Mrs. Cavendish p. 55

The Young Mrs. Cavendish p. 57

Her Lament p. 59

Her Politics p. 60

The Period of Mourning p. 61

Mrs. Cavendish's Dog p. 62

The Winter Guide p. 63

Her American Dilemma p. 65

The End of Secrecy p. 67

Mrs. Cavendish and the Dancer p. 69

Mrs. Cavendish and the General Malaise p. 71

Mrs. Cavendish's Dream p. 73

Mrs. Cavendish and the Outlaw p. 74

Mrs. Cavendish Speaks p. 75

The Learning Curve p. 77

Mrs. Cavendish Speaks of the Unforgivable p. 79

Mrs. Cavendish Returns from Inner Space p. 80

Mrs. Cavendish Comes to Terms p. 81

Hope, And Other Four-Letter Words p. 82

Mrs. Cavendish and the Beyond p. 83

The Democracy Game p. 85

The Persistence of Desire p. 86

The Keeper of Limits p. 87

Mrs. Cavendish Becomes the Real Thing p. 88

The Man Left Behind p. 90.

ISBN:

9781324002314

132400231X

OCLC:

1084331210