The World below the Window Poe

Smith, Mr. William Jay

ISBN 10: 0801858593 / ISBN 13: 9780801858598

Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998

About this Item

Item in good condition and has highlighting/writing on text. Used texts may not contain supplemental items such as CDs, info-trac etc.

Seller Inventory # 00088606917

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The World below the Window Poe
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801858593
• ISBN 13: 9780801858598
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

This selection of William Jay Smith's work of sixty years covers the entire career of one of America's acknowledged poetic masters. It moves from the dark pre-war lyrics (Quail in Autumn) to the powerful long-lined free verse of the 1960s (The Tin Can). Here are memorable WWII lyrics (Dark Valentine) and masterful light verse (The Tall Poets), displaying the wit that enlivens all of Smith's work. Previously uncollected poems range from a haunting delineation of the ironies of age in "The Shipwreck" to the dramatic intensity of The Cherokee Lottery, which deals with the forced removal of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi.

Praise for William Jay Smith:

"A most gifted and original poet... One of the very few who cannot be confused with anybody else." -- Richard Wilbur

"William Jay Smith has been one of our best poets for more than sixty years, and The Cherokee Lottery is his masterwork: taut, harrowing, eloquent, and profoundly memorable." -- Harold Bloom

"His best poems are unlike anything else in contemporary American literature... Although often based on realistic situations, Smith's compressed, formal lyrics develop language musically in a way which summons an intricate, dreamlike set of images and associations." -- Dana Gioia

"William Jay Smith has given us many of the truest and purest poems an American has written: the most resonantly musical, the most magical." -- X. J. Kennedy

About the Author

Author of more than fifty books of poetry, children's verse, literary criticism, translation, and memoirs, and editor of several influential anthologies, William Jay Smith served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (a position now called Poet Laureate) from 1968 to 1970. His memoir, Army Brat, was praised by Eudora Welty and Ralph Ellison, among many others, and his translations have won awards from the French Academy, the Swedish Academy, and the Hungarian government. Two of his thirteen collections of poetry were final contenders for the National Book Award. Professor Emeritus of English at Hollins University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he divides his time between Cummington, Massachusetts, and Paris.