John Updike was always as much a poet as a storyteller and the poems in this, his final collection, celebrate the everyday, even as they address his own imminent mortality. It is in the connected series of poems, Endpoint, written on his last few birthdays and culminating with the illness that killed him, that Updike's work is at its most touching and poignant.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
John Updike was born in 1932 in Shillington, Pennsylvania, and died in January 2009. His novels have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the American Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Award, and the Howells Medal.
Half Moon, Small Cloud
Caught out in daylight, a rabbit's
transparent pallor, the moon
is paired with a cloud of equal weight:
the heavenly congruence startles.
For what is the moon, that it haunts us,
this impudent companion immigrated
from the system's less fortunate margins,
the realm of dust collected in orbs?
We grow up as children with it, a nursemaid
of a bonneted sort, round-faced and kind,
not burning too close like parents, or too far
to spare even a glance, like movie stars.
No star but in the zodiac of stars,
a stranger there, too big, it begs for love
(the man in it) and yet is diaphanous,
its thereness as mysterious as ours.
Evening Concert, Sainte-Chapelle
The celebrated windows flamed with light
directly pouring north across the Seine;
we rustled into place. Then violins
vaunting Vivaldi's strident strength, then Brahms,
seemed to suck with their passionate sweetness,
bit by bit, the vigor from the red,
the blazing blue, so that the listening eye
saw suddenly the thick black lines, in shapes
of shield and cross and strut and brace, that held
the holy glowing fantasy together.
The music surged; the glow became a milk,
a whisper to the eye, a glimmer ebbed
until our beating hearts, our violins
were cased in thin but solid sheets of lead.
Country Music
February 1999
Oh Monica, you Monica
In your little black beret,
You beguiled our saintly Billy
And led that creep astray.
He'd never seen thong underpants
Or met a Valley girl;
He was used to Southern women,
Like good old Minnie Pearl.
You vamped him with your lingo,
Your notes in purple ink,
And fed him Vox and bagels
Until he couldn't think.
You were our Bill's Delilah
Until Acquittal Day;
You're his-tor-y now, Monica,
In your little black beret.
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Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. 'Urbane, worldly and robustly sane, the late Updike's poetry bears comparison with writers such as Auden, James Merrill and Seamus Heaney' Daily MailJohn Updike was always as much a poet as a storyteller and the poems in this, his final collection, celebrate the everyday, even as they address his own imminent mortality. It is in the connected series of poems, Endpoint, written on his last few birthdays and culminating with the illness that killed him that Updike's work is at its most touching and poignant.'The poems celebrate everything and anything, no matter how out of the way- earthworms, telegraph poles, milkshakes, baseball . . . they float freely between the ridiculous and sublime. . . coupled with an exhilaratingly exact descriptive precision' Mail on Sunday'There's no denying Updike's ability to digest any occasion vividly and philosophically' Daily Telegraph'Superbly skilful, effortlessly able to delineate the sweep of a lifetime in a few pages' Evening Standard A collection of poems. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780141044507
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. John Updike was always as much a poet as a storyteller and the poems in this, his final collection, celebrate the everyday, even as they address his own imminent mortality. It is in the connected series of poems, Endpoint, written on his last few birthdays and culminating with the illness that killed him, that Updike's work is at its most touching and poignant. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR003667031
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