The Moon Before Morning - Softcover

W. S. Merwin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1780371012 ISBN 13: 9781780371016

Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 2014

Synopsis

W.S. Merwin was arguably the most influential American poet of the last half-century - an artist who transfigured and reinvigorated the vision of poetry for our time. An essential voice in modern American literature, he was United States Poet Laureate in 2010-11.

The Moon Before Morning is a love letter composed in a stunning rush of memory. Answering the call set forth in The Shadow of Sirius (2009), which won him his second Pulitzer Prize, Merwin extends the emotional and intellectual reach of that collection with passionate reverence for the natural world, bittersweet reflection on time's irrevocable ravages, and equanimity informed by a lifetime of writing and practised contemplation.

Merwin's studied precision in form and language filters crisp, beautiful images through ethereal memory, forging an intense bond between the writer and a quickly transforming world. 'When we forget,' Merwin writes, others will remember: no action or spirit on Earth is without its infinite reverberations.

Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

About this title

About the Author

W. S. Merwin: W.S. Merwin served as Poet Laureate of the United States and has received every major literary accolade, including two Pulitzer prizes, most recently for The Shadow of Sirius (Copper Canyon) and the National Book Award for Migration: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon).

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Merwin’s masterfully refined, meditative poems stem from his dwelling mindfully in one beloved place and handling words as though they are seeds, flowers, stones, and water. A former poet laureate and National Book Award winner, Merwin received his second Pulitzer Prize for his previous collection, The Shadow of Sirius (2008), and here extends his practice of closely observing nature, time, and human paradoxes. For four decades Merwin has been restoring land in Hawaii, the setting for the opening cycle of rinsed-clean lyrics, in which palm trees, clouds, each “the only one of its kind,” and his garden accentuate the perfection of nature—“no question and no doubt”—in contrast to the confusion and yearning of humankind. As he watches crows flying across a clear sky, he thinks, “Nothing is missing.” Yet he also writes of the deprivations of his gritty New Jersey childhood and his long wandering years. As Merwin contrasts reverence for the living world with heedless environmental destruction, anger surfaces. But gratitude prevails, and Merwin offers thanks for many gifts, including “words / that come out of silence and take me by surprise / and have carried me through the clear day.” Merwin has attained a transcendent and transformative elevation of beaming perception, exquisite balance, and clarifying beauty. --Donna Seaman

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1780371012
• ISBN 13: 9781780371016
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128