Synopses & Reviews
Jay Hopler's Green Squall is the winner of the 2005 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. As Louise Glück observes in her foreword, “Green Squall begins and ends in the garden”; however, Hoplers gardens are not of the seasonal variety evoked by poets of the English lyric—his gardens flourish at lower, fiercer latitudes and in altogether different mindscapes. There is a darkness in Hoplers work as deep and brutal as any in American poetry. Though his verbal extravagance and formal invention bring to mind Wallace Stevenss tropical extrapolations, there lies beneath Green Squalls lush tropical surfaces a terrifying world in which nightmare and celebration are indistinguishable, and hope is synonymous with despair.
Review
“The Yale Series of Younger Poets remains the most prestigious [poetry contest], and Hoplers work is an excellent addition ….”—
Library JournalReview
“The best of these poems are truly stunning.”—
Publishers WeeklySynopsis
A diverse and imaginative selection of works from the long tradition of devotional poetry in English
Before the Door of God traces the development of devotional English-language poetry from its origins in ancient hymnody to its current twenty-first-century incarnations. The poems in this volume demonstrate not only that devotional poetry poetry that speaks to the divine remains in vigorous practice but also that the tradition reaches back to the very origins of poetry in English.
Featuring the work of poets over a three-thousand-year period, Before the Door of God places the devotional lyric in its cultural, historical, and aesthetic contexts. The volume traces the various influences on this tradition and identifies features that persist in devotional lyric poetry across centuries, cultures, and stylistic differences. To scholars, literary professionals, and general readers who find delight in fine poetry, this anthology offers much to contemplate and discuss."
About the Author
Jay Hopler was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1970 and has earned degrees from New York University, The Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He lives in Southwest Florida.