5 Degrees and Other Poems (Penguin Poets) - Hardcover

Christopher, Nicholas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670853410 ISBN 13: 9780670853410

Publisher: Viking, 1995

Synopsis

5[actual symbol not reproducible] is a thirty-five-part sequence of interlocking poems that form a vast, brilliant allegory, combining themes of magic, spiritual transcendence and exploration. In luminously crafted verse, Christopher combines such seemingly disparate subjects as the lives of Harry Houdini and the English mystic and mathematician John Dee (who invented a language in which he communicated with angels); the brief, stormy collaboration between Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh; the Nazi occupation of an Aegean island; the descent of Persephone to the underworld; lunar cartography, and the twin motifs of space voyages and Arctic explorations; and the emblematic characters of Shakespeare's Tempest. All of these themes and characters emanate from a single night in an enormous city in which it is 5[actual symbol not reproducible]. 5[actual symbol not reproducible] is surely one of the most important long poems by an American poet in recent times. The volume also contains twenty-five new lyric and narrative poems, with subjects ranging from Vietnam and Bosnia to life on remote Pacific islands, from the elegiac to the surreal. Most of these poems first appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Nation, and The Paris Review. Anthony Hecht has written that "Christopher's poetry is not merely extraordinarily good, but seems altogether in a class by itself." And in this, his fifth volume of poetry in twelve years, Christopher has further established himself as one of America's most distinguished and original poets.

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Reviews

Christopher's fifth book of poems begins with a series of interlocking poems (with allegorical elements) that all are generated by a single night in an enormous imaginary city in which the temperature is five degrees. For the most part, the ambitious sequence succeeds, and Christopher's language is as bewitching as the inhabitants of his fantasized metropolis. These include Harry Houdini, introduced as an aviation pioneer who does magic only as a hobby; an angel who signs a man's name in blue light on a black wall; and the goddess Inanna descending into the underworld on razor-sharp, slippery steps. After the sequence come 25 lyric and narrative poems; their subjects range from hibiscus tea in a dying man's room to observations of a city street at 6 a.m.; their locales, from Vietnam to Bosnia. In all the poems, Christopher beautifully combines empathy and distance, mystery and exploration. Elizabeth Gunderson

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670853410
• ISBN 13: 9780670853410
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112