Vertical Poetry - Hardcover

JUARROZ, Roberto

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0865473064 ISBN 13: 9780865473065

Publisher: North Point Press, 1988

Synopsis

Winner of the Colorado Book Award for Translation upon its release, this book brings to English-speaking audiences new work by this brilliant Argentine poet of whom Octavio Paz says, "Each of Juarroz's poems is a surprising verbal language reduced to a drop of light." In Juarroz's work we encounter the vertical depths of language, the inner wells.

About this title

Reviews

These poems, appearing in Spanish and Engish translation rendered by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Merwin, convey the Argentine Juarroz's ideas about the continuity and infinity of human experience: once external factors are stripped away from one's life, what remains is abstract and primitive. The physicality of a poem is integral to the meaning of its words: Juarroz devises his creations vertically, geometrically; they can begin at the first word or the last, the constant being motion, fundamental and never-changing. A lilting symmetry of sound results, but because the crux of this work is Juarroz's conviction of the immutability and significance of form as meaning, the volume becomes one long poem, a cycle of form repeating itself. Metaphysical designs, however gracefully sculpted into verse, do not allow here for much variety in language or music in individual words; while the poems often have a mesmerizing, heady quality, just as often they are indistinguishable, repetitive and inaccessible. If the collection were shorter, perhaps the esoteric quality of the poems would be provocative, rather than overwhelming. Juarroz's aphorisms are illuminating and original, but the plethora of them diminishes their power.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"Vertical poetry" describes not so much the form of these poems as their "shrugging-off of the traditional arrogation and restrictions of Post-Aristotelian Western logic," according to award-winning poet/translator Merwin. Selecting from nine collections spanning nearly 30 years of Juarroz's work, Merwin compares Juarroz's aphoristic, fragmentary, free verse poems (all numbered, rather than titled) to the work of Blake, Rilke, and the author of the Tao Te Ching . Machado comes to mind, too. These short, highly compressed poems gradually draw the reader to their centers and complexities, often requiring repeated readings before meanings are felt. Foreign poetry collections should be especially interested. Thom Tammaro, Moorhead St. Univ., Minn.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: North Point Press
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0865473064
• ISBN 13: 9780865473065
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 161