A. R. Ammons: Selected Poems
A. R. Ammons: Selected Poems (American Poets Project) A. R. Ammons, David Lehman (Editor)
Publisher: Library of America
ISBN: 1931082936
DDC: 811
Edition: Hardcover; 2006-04-06
Summary:
Meditative, comic, emotionally wrenching, steeped in both the natural
world and the life of the mind, the poetry of A. R. Ammons is at once
cosmic in scope and intimate in its moment-to-moment transformations.
With his mastery of description and cadence, his roiling wit and
fearless gaze, Ammons was a philosopher of the everyday who found
surprise everywhere he looked. "He is often witty, sometimes bawdy,"
writes editor David Lehman, "on a perpetual quest to find forms
capacious enough for an imagination intent on finding a place for
everything." A compound, in editor David Lehman's words, of "wisdom,
pathos, humor, mortal longing, and intimations of immortality," the
work of A. R. Ammons is like nothing else in modern American poetry.
Ammons's tireless formal invention and restless curiosity about every
aspect of nature and of the mind are embodied in poetry that is
effortlessly accessible and generous in its impulses. Whether
spreading out in the long forms of Tape for the Turn of the Year or
Garbage, or honing his perceptions down to the extreme brevity of his
shorter lyrics, he holds tight to his vision of the way "all day /
life itself is bending, / weaving, changing, / adapting, failing, /
succeeding." This new selection covering the whole range of Ammons's
career offers a superb introduction to the pleasures and surprises of
his work. His uncanny ability to balance wide-ranging abstract
speculation with meticulous observation of natural phenomena, in
poetry that encompasses moods of tragic pathos, low comedy, and
seemingly casual profundity marks him as one of the preeminent
figures in our recent literature
We query many merchants so that you can instantly
compare prices and
availability. You can even check historic prices and subscribe
for notifications. For a manual check, clicking on a link will open a
new window with a search for this book on the merchant's site of your
choice.
