Midwest Eclogue: Poems - Hardcover

Baker, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039306090X ISBN 13: 9780393060904

Publisher: W. W. Norton, 2005

Synopsis

"The most expansive and moving poet to come out of the American Midwest since James Wright."—Marilyn Hacker

Midwest Eclogue is a profound dialogue between the heartland and the heart. David Baker's devotions are erotic and familial, natural and environmental, literary and social. Inspired by the landscape of the Midwest, Baker's landscape of human passions—haunted by roots and wings—is rendered in a rich and polyphonic craft.

About this title

About the Author:

David Baker teaches at Denison University, is poetry editor of The Kenyon Review, and lives in Granville, Ohio.

From Booklist:

Virgil was the grand master of the game Baker plays. The great Roman's bucolic clogues, which depicted the sensuality and even rank eroticism of rural life, established a genre that has lasted through two millennia and that Baker revives majestically and tenderly. Although erudite and handy with allusions to John Clare, Walt Whitman, and Robert Burton, Baker never wanders too far from the natural world that entrances and mystifies him. His daughter's hyperactivity becomes a moment of mystery when her brain and body are paradoxically calmed by stimulants. So does a frightened horse's sudden storm of fear that leaves him bleeding, awed, intensely alive. These are surprisingly gracious, almost casual poems, despite their impeccable formalism and unreserved learnedness. Masterful and moving, they make up a book that lives up to the historic resonance in its title. Patricia Monaghan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 039306090X
• ISBN 13: 9780393060904
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96