Synopses & Reviews
Luminous new poems from the author of "The Appalachian Book of the Dead" Landscape, as Wang Wei says, softens the sharp edges of isolation.
Don't just do something, sit there.
And so I have, so I have,
the seasons curling around me like smoke,
Gone to the end of the earth and back without a sound.
-"Body and Soul II"
This is Charles Wright's first collection of verse since the completion of his Appalachian Book of the Dead, the trilogy of trilogies hailed as one "among the great long poems of the century" (James Longenbach, Boston Review). Wright speaks in these poems with characteristic charm, restlessness, and wit, writing again and again, "I sit where I always sit," only to reveal himself in a new setting every time. In A Short History of the Shadow Wright's return to the landscapes of his early work finds his art resilient in a world haunted by death and the dead.
Charles Wright has won, among other honors, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, and the Academy of American Poets' 1996 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. He teaches at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
This is Wright's first collection of verse since the gathering, in Negative Blue, of the three books he called his Appalachian Book of the Deadan extended work "sure to be counted among the great long poems of the century" (James Longenbach, Boston Review).
In these new poems, Wright speaks and muses in the modes of pastoral, elegy, and homagemethods of poetic address that has made his ownwith characteristic restlessness, wit, perception, and meditative insight. In A Short History of the Shadow, in a world haunted by death and the dead, Wright's return to the landscapes of his early work finds his art, as ever, resilient, haunting, singular.
"The premier poet in America . . . No one makes the music Charles Wright makes."Virginia Quarterly Review
"The premier poet in America . . . No one makes the music Charles Wright makes."Virginia Quarterly Review
"Wright, Tennessean by birth and Italian by sensibility (he taught himself to write by translating Montale in the sixties), invokes Dante with an Appalachian tongue."The New Yorker
"[These are] lyrics of great beauty that achieve a level of eloquence where the reader says to himself, if this is not wisdom, I don't know what is."Charles Simic, The New York Review of Books
"Gorgeous, tired, lonely lines, full of grace and heartrending redundancy."Oni Buchanan, The Boston Phoenix
"[Wright] finds the sublime in the unlikeliest places, and at his best makes you think such places are exactly where to look."William Logan, The New Criterion
"There are precious few poets in whose work I find as much sheer wisdom as in Wright's . . . The whole world seems to orbit in a kind of meditative, slow circle around Wright's grave influence."David Baker, Poetry
"Wright, who wrote his first poem as an Army intelligence officer in Italy in 1959 after reading Erza Pound, studied at the Iowa Writer's Workshop when poetry was moving from formal verse to free verse. Carefully constructed pieces of architecture made to look breezy and effortless, his poems reflect those opposing forces. Reading his work [transports] you to another world."Amy Sparks, The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"[Readers] will find their efforts well rewarded by the vividness and inventiveness of this poets descriptive writing, by the evocative music of his language, and by the centrality of the issues he raises as he explores the human condition . . . These poems will assuredly spark keen insights in their readers and will deepen appreciation for the continuing excellence of Wrights artistic achievement."John Lang, Appalachian Heritage
"No attentive reader would ever mistake Wright's evocative, sprawling poems for poems by anyone else . . . [A Short History of the Shadow is] a moody, winning collection that plays to his long-recognized strengths: balanced and lengthy musical lines; ambling meditation; beautiful Blue Ridge landscapes; nods to American, Italian, and Chinese poets; and a self-aware, pragmatist-cum-Taoist resignation to the fleetingness of all things."Publishers Weekly
Review
"There are precious few poets in whose work I find as much sheer wisdom as in Wright's ... The whole world seems to orbit in a kind of meditative, slow circle around Wright's grave influence." -David Baker,
Poetry
Review
“[Wright] finds the sublime in the unlikeliest places, and at his best makes you think such places are exactly where to look.”—William Logan,
The New Criterion
Synopsis
Luminous new poems from one who “has long been a poet of gorgeous description” —William Logan, The New CriterionLandscape, as Wang Wei says, softens the sharp edges of isolation.
Dont just do something, sit there.
And so I have, so I have,
the seasons curling around me like smoke,
Gone to the end of the earth and back without a sound.
—from “Body and Soul II”
This is Charles Wrights first collection of verse since the gathering, in Negative Blue, of his “Appalachian Book of the Dead,” a trilogy of trilogies hailed “among the great long poems of the century” (James Longenbach, Boston Review). In A Short History of the Shadow, Wrights return to the landscapes of his early work finds his art resilient in a world haunted by death and the dead.
Synopsis
This is Charles Wright's first collection of verse since the completion of his Appalachian Book of the Dead, the trilogy of trilogies hailed as "among the great long poems of the century" (James Longenbach, Boston Review). Wright speaks in these poems with characteristic charm, restlessness, and wit, writing again and again, "I sit where I always sit, " only to reveal himself in a new setting every time. In A Short History of the Shadow Wright's return to the landscapes of his early work finds his art resilient in a world haunted by death and the dead.
Synopsis
Luminous new poems from one who “has long been a poet of gorgeous description” —William Logan, The New CriterionLandscape, as Wang Wei says, softens the sharp edges of isolation.
Dont just do something, sit there.
And so I have, so I have,
the seasons curling around me like smoke,
Gone to the end of the earth and back without a sound.
—from “Body and Soul II”
This is Charles Wrights first collection of verse since the gathering, in Negative Blue, of his “Appalachian Book of the Dead,” a trilogy of trilogies hailed “among the great long poems of the century” (James Longenbach, Boston Review). In A Short History of the Shadow, Wrights return to the landscapes of his early work finds his art resilient in a world haunted by death and the dead.
About the Author
Charles Wright has won, among other honors, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, and the Academy of American Poets' 1996 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. He teaches at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.