PS3569.L3: Poems (Poetry) - Softcover

Slavitt, David R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807123013 ISBN 13: 9780807123010

Publisher: LSU Press, 1998

Synopsis

PS3569.L3, David R. Slavitt’s sixtieth book, is a collection of poems, translations, imitations, parodies, jeux de mots, and jeux d’esprit―work that ranges from grief-stricken brooding to exuberant clowning around. The odd title, for instance, is nothing more or less than the author’s Library of Congress identification, which he adopts now that it has adopted him. Few contemporary poets display his range of sensibility and response to the various occasions of chaotic existence in our time, and Slavitt offers us his reactions to those stresses and cultural shocks that have not so much engaged his attention as ambushed it. He writes poetry that ascends to Pindar and Meleager, or descends some traditional prosodic scale even to the point where it risks gibberish―or basks in it―and he makes no apology for this.

About this title

About the Author

David R. Slavitt has published 130 books of poetry, fiction, and translation. Born in White Plains, New York, and educated at Andover, Yale, and Columbia, Slavitt has worked at Newsweek and taught at Temple University, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Bennington College.

Reviews

Taking its title from the author's Library of Congress number, the poems collected here resound with smugness. Slavitt (Epic and Epigram, Louisiana State Univ., 1997) takes refuge in form, albeit in unusual (and sometimes sloppy) patterns; as he says in "The Exigency of Rhyme," "It distracts the mind to allow/ for an openness, somehow/ holding a thought but not/ being held by it or caught." His dominant theme, the presence of the Almighty in a profane contemporary landscape, quickly becomes repetitive. Slavitt's secondary theme is history, evidenced by a long, inane sequence linking warmongers with deserts. A similar blending of past and present works far better in "Reading Pindar," a whimsical piece based on a thorough reading of Pindar's texts. This is book number 60 for the noted poet, essayist, and translator, and for that alone he deserves our admiration and respect. Such voluminous output does not, however, provide the emotional intensity many poetry readers prefer. Recommended for academic libraries with an interest in Slavitt's other work.?Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807123013
• ISBN 13: 9780807123010
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96