The Seven Deadly Sins and Other Poems - Softcover

Slavitt, David R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807134031 ISBN 13: 9780807134030

Publisher: LSU Press, 2009

Synopsis

In The Seven Deadly Sins and Other Poems, veteran poet David R. Slavitt touches on topics from the mundane to the mysterious with his signature wit and intelligence. In "Stupid," for instance, he transforms a simple head cold into an appreciation for the richness of consciousness, and in "Waking," the very effort of rising from bed becomes something like a miracle: "I heave myself up to a sitting position, pause / a moment, and am amazed by what I have done...." Slavitt explores the range of the human condition with such ease and insight that readers cannot help but ponder what life is -- and what it could be. What if -- like the mythic sea creature in "The Dogfish" -- humans could return to the womb when frightened? In the collection's title poem, Slavitt gives a voice to the Seven Deadly Sins, each of which claims, persuasively, to possess a value to humans that is seldom noticed or appreciated. Slavitt has a unique ability to examine an idea -- be it virtue or vice, dark or blithe -- and offer perspective and wisdom about the conundrums of our existence.

About this title

About the Author

David R. Slavitt has published more than eighty books of poetry, fiction, translations, and nonfiction. His recent poetry collections are Change of Address: Poems, New and Selected and William Henry Harrison and Other Poems. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

From Booklist

There are many more sonnets here than just the sequence “Sleep Set,” on the pleasures and irritations of somnolence. Almost all are rhymed, scan casually, and speak modernly. Only the perversely but justly titled “Ave Verum Corpus” touches erotic love, the sonnet’s traditional preoccupation; yet all, sonnetlike, reflect on their titular subjects and reach conclusions, even if unsettled ones, as in “Prayers,” on the mortification of having forgotten “the tongue of prayer.” Each utters thoughts one nods assent to while purring contentment with their wit. The shorter and longer poems in the book can afford to be more discursive, querulous, funny, and touching. The set of dramatic monologues after which Slavitt names the collection is a tour de force in which speaker after speaker confirms the sinfulness he denies and the primacy of pride among them all. Slavitt’s original poems are so lively and smart as to suggest that the High Middle Ages never died, and it is altogether fitting that mellifluous translations of four classical Latin, Sanskrit, and French poems close the collection. --Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0807134031
• ISBN 13: 9780807134030
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 80