No Messages (Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry) - Hardcover

Hahn, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0268036527 ISBN 13: 9780268036522

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001

Synopsis

No Messages, the 2001 winner of the Ernest Sandeen Prize, is Robert Hahn's second major collection of poetry. In commenting on Hahn's first collection, All Clear, Richard Howard called attention to Hahn's ability "to ground his perceptions, his discoveries in a specific circumstance . . . to reach the risen condition, the state beyond, which is the purpose of all his poems". Howard's analysis anticipates the poems of No MessagesNo Messages is an apt introduction to the new millennium. The "no messages" of the title reflects a basic tension in contemporary poetry, between its claim to exist in the realms of language and structure, and its sense of responsibility to render the world in its actuality, in a clarified or confronted state. A striking balance of this tension is found in the collection's central section, a suite of poems responding to the influence of James Merrill. While No Messages is devoted to re-visionings of the world in language, it remains grounded in circumstance and place and in the actions and convictions of historical figures. The book opens with John Knox on the beach at St. Andrews in Scotland and closes with John Brown on the bank of the Pottowatamie River in Kansas. Between these two shores, No Messages describes a series of luminous arcs connecting this world and the world beyond.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Hahn is a Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University.

Review:

An Air Full Of Ghosts
At The Northern Gate
Aubade Left Behind In San Diego Harbor
Becalmed, The Director's Cut
Blocked Views, Bad Sightlines
Canal And Camelback Mountain
Curious About The Crows?
Dancing In The Dark
A Date With Sunset
Divining
Do You Want To Talk About It?
Don't Try This At Home
Epilogue And Unraveling: Pig-headed Father, Churlish Son
Eppur, Si Muove
Escape From The Orkneys
Eternal Weather At The Holiday Inn In Milledgeville
The Eugenics Lab
The Flayed Man At The Fin De Siecle
Guilt
Hail And Farewell At St. Andrews
How Long Has This Been Going On
In The Open
John Ford On His Death Bed
Just One Look
Moon Pie On The Hill
No Messages
No Place Like Home
Object In An Inventory (2)
Overture: The Bright Day
Paradise Mall
Phony Winter Solstice Ceremonies Unmasked
Picnic Suite: 1. Langue Et Parole
Picnic Suite: 2. Moonglow
Picnic Suite: 3. Lamoille River Seduction
Picnic Suite: 4. A Southern Indiana Boyhood
Picnic Suite: 5. Some Pigs
Raw Or Cooked?
Say You Will
Sentimental Journey
Shot On Site
Smoke Trail
Spring, Not Seen
Stranded On The Shore
String Of Beads
Where Was Voo Doo When We Needed It
Yes
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0268036527
• ISBN 13: 9780268036522
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 138