A Sum of Destructions: Poems - Hardcover

Weiss, Theodore

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807119326 ISBN 13: 9780807119327

Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr, 1994

Synopsis

The title of Theodore Weiss's thirteenth book of poetry, A Sum of Destructions, expresses the paradox that informs the collection. Our lives inevitably sustain losses small and large. The more given, the more losable. However, we experience our gifts perhaps best, certainly most poignantly, in their loss. Against the backdrop of destruction, these poems propose the grand total to which our gifts add up.
"Fractions" directly reflects the volume's theme. Emphasizing the root of its title - fracture, brokenness - the poem at the same time celebrates the recovery we can enjoy - through feeling, thoughts, words - of things broken or lost.
With ardent cadence of thought and word, Weiss explores the human and natural conditions. Attending to his own moods, feelings, and ideas, he also confronts the predicaments of others in their search for basic identity.
Language itself - its resources, private lights, and profound interplay with our lives - no less engages him. He witnesses our reliance on that language as well as the frustrations and confusions in which it often embroils us.
Through a voice filled with awe, a summation of our lives, however fragile, is Weiss's gift to us.

About this title

About the Author:

Theodore Weiss is emeritus professor of English and creative writing at Princeton University and coeditor with his wife, Renée of the Quarterly Review of Literature. Among his recent books of poetry are A Slow Fuse and his collected poems, From Princeton One Autumn Afternoon. He has been the recipient of several honorary degrees in letters, a member of the National Book Award jury for poetry and the Bollingen Committee, a guest and reader at the White House, and winner of -- among other prizes, including a Guggenheim and other fellowships -- the Poetry Society of America's Shelley Memorial Award.

From Publishers Weekly:

Weiss's (A Slow Fuse) 13th book of poetry, adjective-rich, marks a milestone. The first four sections catch him in mid-thought, revealing a man flanked by a prolix, interior imagination on the one hand, and on the other by the stinging externality of the objective world. Observing the fracturedness of that world, Weiss waxes nostalgic and orders his thoughts into a fragile and gleaming cohesion of instants. Championing an assertion of Wallace Stevens, in "Satisfied" he asks: "Why should it ever be satisfied,/ the mind?... However many thoughts we entertain,/ not all together can account/ for the world or the rootedness/ of this yearning to be satisfied." Yet Weiss's yearning gives satisfaction. This theme unfolds brilliantly in the book's final portion, a poem entitled "The Garden Beyond" written as a monologue by Eve. Hurt by her exclusion from Adam's intimacy with God, yet still reverent, Eve finds fault with Adam and questions why he discourages her "appetite for change." His obedience to God annoys her. Certain that her path is God-inspired, she takes up with the serpent, who attests to a garden beyond. Weiss persuades us that her decision to taste the fruit is defensible.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0807119326
• ISBN 13: 9780807119327
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 96