Synopses & Reviews
James Merrill himself once called his body of work “chronicles of love and loss,” and in twenty books written over four decades he used the details of his own life—comic and haunting, exotic and domestic—to shape a portrait that in turn mirrored the image of our world and our moment. This volume rings together the best of Merrill—from the domestic rupture of “The Broken Home” to the universal connections of “Lost in Translation”; from the American storyteller of “The Summer People” to the ecologically motivated satirist of “Self-Portrait in a TyvekTM Windbreaker.” Merrill dazzles at every turn, and this balanced and compact selection will be an ideal introduction to the work for both students and general readers, and an instant favorite among his familiars.
Log
Then when the flame forked like a sudden path
I gasped and stumbled, and was less.
Density pulsing upward, gauze of ash,
Dear light along the way to nothingness,
What could be made of you but light, and this?
About the Author
James Merrill (1926-1995) wrote twelve books of poems, as well as the epic The Changing Light at Sandover. He published two plays, two novels, and a memoir, A Different Person. The recipient of numerous awards for his poetry, including two National Book Awards, the Bollingen Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Bobbitt Prize from the Library of Congress, Merrill was also a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Table of Contents
Introduction From First Poems, 1951
The Black Swan
The House
From The Country of a Thousand Years of Peace, 1959
The Country of a Thousand Years of Peace
The Lovers
A Renewal
Upon a Second Marriage
The Charioteer of Delphi
Mirror
Marsyas
The Doodler
Voices From the Other World
In the Hall of Mirrors
A Dedication
From Water Street, 1962
An Urban Convalescence
After Greece
For Proust
Scenes of Childhood
Angel
Swimming by Night
A Tenancy
From Nights and Days, 1966
Nightgown
The Thousand and Second Night
Time
Charles on Fire
The Broken Home
The Current
The Mad Scene
From The Cupola
Days of 1964
From The Fire Screen, 1969
Lorelei
The Friend of the Fourth Decade
Words for Maria
To My Greek
Last Words
Another August
Mornings in a New House
Matinées
The Summer People
From Braving the Elements, 1972
Log
After the Fire
Days of 1935
18 West 11th Street
Willowware Cup
From Up and Down
Flèche dor
Days of 1971
The Victor Dog
Syrinx
From Divine Comedies, 1976
The Kimono
Lost in Translation
Chimes for Yahya
Yánnina
Verse for Urania
The Will
From The Changing Light at Sandover, 1982
From The Book of Ephraim
From Scripts for the Pageant
From Late Settings, 1985
Grass
The Pier: Under Pisces
The School Play
Page From the Koran
Santo
Bronze
Channel 13
Paul Valéry: Palme
After the Ball
From The Inner Room, 1988
Little Fallacy
Arabian Night
The Parnassians
Ginger Beef
Dead Center
Losing the Marbles
Investiture at Cecconis
Farewell Performance
Processional
From A Scattering of Salts, 1995
A Downward Look
Nine Lives
Snow Jobs
The Instilling
My Fathers Irish Setters
Vol. XLIV, No. 3
b o d y
Pledge
Family Week at Oracle Ranch
Overdue Pilgrimage to Nova Scotia
Self-Portrait in TyvekTM Windbreaker
An Upward Look
From Collected Poems, 2001
After Cavafy
Oranges
In the Pink
Rhapsody on Czech Themes
Christmas Tree
Koi
Days of 1994
Notes
Short Chronology
Suggestions for Further Reading