Silence Now - Hardcover

Sarton, May

  • 3.53 out of 5 stars
    58 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780393026511: Silence Now
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0393026515 ISBN 13: 9780393026511
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1988

Synopsis

A collection of poems exploring the events and emotions of old age in the contemporary world includes Sarton's latest works and a selection of earlier poems never before published

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Reviews

Sarton is now in her mid-70s, and the title of her luminous new verse collection alludes to its underlying theme: old age. It's a time when she has "more of everything to care for, to maintain." Her powers of observation have deepened: a cat's footfall on the stairs "speaks of an eternal Now." In beautifully simple language shorn of all artifice, she speaks directly and with wisdom about grief, loneliness, death, coming to terms with one's life. There are a few topical poems, such as her inspirational hymn on the AIDS crisis and a sociological piece about the impact of the feminist movement on macho attitudes. This is Sarton's first volume of poetry since Selected Poems (1978). The clear-as-crystal diction of the recent works contrasts sharply with the 19 previously uncollected, much earlier lyrics that employ the tropes of traditional verse (falcons, lutes, towers, kingdoms). Notable among the latter group is a sonnet sequence in which love and poetry are responses to the poet's fear and trembling before God.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In her first book of poems in a decade, Sarton confronts the process of aging and its accompanying losses and gains. As in earlier poems and journals, nature is an ever-present solace in her solitudea condition she both embraces and berates. Yet her seclusion does not keep her from making social commentary in such poems as "AIDS" and "New Year Poem," which tells us: "Unless the gentle inherit the earth/ There will be no earth." The previously unpublished third section of poems includes a sonnet sequence that explores the conflict of love and art. Still writing in her mid-70s, Sarton proves that "If old age is a house of gather,/ Then the hands are full." Grace Bauer, Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ., Blacksburg
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
W W Norton & Co Inc
Publication date
1988
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0393026515
ISBN 13 
9780393026511
Binding
Hardcover
Edition number
1
Number of pages
79
Rating
  • 3.53 out of 5 stars
    58 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780393306354: The Silence Now: New and Uncollected Early Poems

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0393306356 ISBN 13:  9780393306354
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1990
Softcover