Synopses & Reviews
This selection of William Jay Smith's work of sixty years covers the entire career of one of America's acknowledged poetic masters. It moves from the dark pre-war lyrics (Quail in Autumn) to the powerful long-lined free verse of the 1960s (The Tin Can). Here are memorable WWII lyrics (Dark Valentine) and masterful light verse (The Tall Poets), displaying the wit that enlivens all of Smith's work. Previously uncollected poems range from a haunting delineation of the ironies of age in The Shipwreck to the dramatic intensity of The Cherokee Lottery, which deals with the forced removal of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi.
Praise for William Jay Smith:
A most gifted and original poet... One of the very few who cannot be confused with anybody else. -- Richard Wilbur
William Jay Smith has been one of our best poets for more than sixty years, and The Cherokee Lottery is his masterwork: taut, harrowing, eloquent, and profoundly memorable. -- Harold Bloom
His best poems are unlike anything else in contemporary American literature... Although often based on realistic situations, Smith's compressed, formal lyrics develop language musically in a way which summons an intricate, dreamlike set of images and associations. -- Dana Gioia
William Jay Smith has given us many of the truest and purest poems an American has written: the most resonantly musical, the most magical. -- X. J. Kennedy
Synopsis
The poems included in The World below the Window, carefully selected by William Jay Smith, cover the entire career of one of America's acknowledged masters, a writer who deftly defies categorization. Smith melds an array of influence -- from the French Symbolists to W. H. Auden and Wallace Stevens -- into his own unmistakable voice, moving powerfully from the compressed, dark lyrics of his pre-war poetry (Quail in Autumn) to experiments with a long, free-verse line in the 1960's (The Tin Can). Here are memorable lyrics that capture the horror of World War II (Dark Valentine: War Poems) and hilarious light verse (The Tall Poets) that exhibits the wit that has always enlivened even Smith's darkest works. Previously uncollected recent poems reveal the poet's tremendous range as he moves from discussing the ironies of age in The Shipwreck to the dramatic intensity of The Indian Removal, a series of poems dealing with the forced removal of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi.