Defensive Rapture (Sun & Moon Classics) - Softcover

Guest, Barbara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1557130329 ISBN 13: 9781557130327

Publisher: Sun & Moon Press, 1993

Synopsis

Barbara Guest's poems, 1993.

About this title

Reviews

Religious fundamentalists sometimes use the term rapture in reference to an instantaneous bonding of the faithful to God. The "rapture" in Guest's title also refers to a kind of transcendentalism, pushing the reader into the spiritual and metaphysical possibilities of language itself. Guest's poems are never "about" a subject so much as they are about the way language veils and unveils every subject it touches. "Borrowed Mirror, Filmic Rise" is a typical poem in that it deals with visual perception (mirrors and film) and the way words paradoxically illustrate and obfuscate something as simple as evening rain: "from borrowed mirror/ rain a seized and/ crystal pruner the limned/ and eyed cowl/ eyedusk." In a poem on music, she says, "sound opens sound," as if to describe the semantic ripples of her own work. A fascinating if difficult work; recommended for larger collections.
- Daniel L. Guillory, Millikin Univ., Decatur, Ill.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sun & Moon Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1557130329
• ISBN 13: 9781557130327
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112