I started and finished A Sense of Direction in one evening; I couldn't really stop thinking about it, so I couldn't put it down. I found it...
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This volume constitutes the most complete collection of Oppen's work to date-- many poems of which have not been anthologized until now. The centerpiece of the collection is Oppen's wonderful book-length poem-- Of Being Numerous. This Pulitzer-prize-winning poem is concerned with the dilemma of seeing the world through the eyes of solitude versus seeing the world through the eyes of what it is to be of the numerous. Throughout the poem's forty sections the reader is introduced to the meaning of what it is to be "of being numerous," warned about the shipwreck of isolation, thrust into the madness of war with all of its atrocities, reminded of the limits of language, introduced to clarity, and finally called upon to realize the necessity for compassion. A heartily recommended read!
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In an effort to perfect his craft, George Mackay Brown often wrote about the same themes: the meeting of the Viking world and the Christian World, the violence of the past and the present, solitude, silence, and other such concerns. Magnus, a 12th Century Orkney saint, is at the center of much of his work and reappears again and again in his prose, poetry, and essays. That said-- despite the recurring themes, Brown was a wonderful, gifted poet that had a real talent for image, meter, the symbol, and a sense of the Orkney life-- both past and present. As Seamus Heaney once said, "his sense of the world and his way with words are powerfully one with each other." Indeed, Brown fine tuned his craft writing about the lives, history, and stories of the Orkney people, a people steeped in both a rich and violent past, a past that reflects the present with alarming clarity. A worthy collection of poems-- some previously unreleased by Brown-- from a poet who should be better known in the United States.
Brown, in his lifetime, often made odd choices and exclusions from his various selected poems. This volume sets everything right, bringing many of those worthy, excluded poems to the forefront where they belong.
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Nathan Wirth has commented on (2) products.
New Collected Poems by George Oppen
Nathan Wirth, January 7, 2008
This volume constitutes the most complete collection of Oppen's work to date-- many poems of which have not been anthologized until now. The centerpiece of the collection is Oppen's wonderful book-length poem-- Of Being Numerous. This Pulitzer-prize-winning poem is concerned with the dilemma of seeing the world through the eyes of solitude versus seeing the world through the eyes of what it is to be of the numerous. Throughout the poem's forty sections the reader is introduced to the meaning of what it is to be "of being numerous," warned about the shipwreck of isolation, thrust into the madness of war with all of its atrocities, reminded of the limits of language, introduced to clarity, and finally called upon to realize the necessity for compassion. A heartily recommended read!(3 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)
The Collected Poems of George MacKay Brown by George Mackay Brown
Nathan Wirth, January 7, 2008
In an effort to perfect his craft, George Mackay Brown often wrote about the same themes: the meeting of the Viking world and the Christian World, the violence of the past and the present, solitude, silence, and other such concerns. Magnus, a 12th Century Orkney saint, is at the center of much of his work and reappears again and again in his prose, poetry, and essays. That said-- despite the recurring themes, Brown was a wonderful, gifted poet that had a real talent for image, meter, the symbol, and a sense of the Orkney life-- both past and present. As Seamus Heaney once said, "his sense of the world and his way with words are powerfully one with each other." Indeed, Brown fine tuned his craft writing about the lives, history, and stories of the Orkney people, a people steeped in both a rich and violent past, a past that reflects the present with alarming clarity. A worthy collection of poems-- some previously unreleased by Brown-- from a poet who should be better known in the United States.Brown, in his lifetime, often made odd choices and exclusions from his various selected poems. This volume sets everything right, bringing many of those worthy, excluded poems to the forefront where they belong.