The Falling Hour (Pitt Poetry Series) - Softcover

Wojahn, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 082295642X ISBN 13: 9780822956426

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997

Synopsis

The Falling Hour is the fifth collection of poetry by David Wojahn, one of the most highly regarded poets of his generation. It is a fiercly elegiac and even apocalyptic book, culminating in a series of blistering elegies written after the sudden death of Wojahn’s wife, the poet Linda Hull. In these poems, the process of mourning and lamentation is examined in all of its intricacy, rage, and sorrowful ambivalence.

About this title

About the Author

David Wojahn is the author of Spirit Cabinet, The Falling Hour, Late Empire, Mystery Train, Glassworks, Icehouse Lights, Interrogation Palace, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and World Tree, winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and the Poet's Prize. He is the recipient of four Pushcart Prizes, the William Carlos Williams Book Award, the Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize, the George Kent Memorial Prize, and the O. B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize, among other honors. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Wojahn is professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and also teaches in the MFA in Writing Program of the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Reviews

Wojahn's (Late Empire, Univ. of Pittsburgh, 1994) work provides a wide array of formal styles?from the couplet to the sonnet. He constructs an interesting villanelle using unconventional stanza patterns, and the structure of his syntax is reminiscent of the late John Berryman, but Wojahn provides more clarity and coherence. He knows when to sacrifice sound for sense and vice versa. His themes address the pop culture of film and music, but he also addresses classic themes such as Eurydice's return to Hades. He asks the classic question, "And how, indeed, could such beauty be borne,/ except on the shoulders of a god?" Often these classical characters and pop films are used as metaphors for death, loneliness, and melancholy that have been reinvented or restructured in the 20th century. The strongest section is the long poem "The Nightingales." Recommended for most collections.?Tim Gavin, Episcopal Acad., Merion, Pa.
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Edition details

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 082295642X
• ISBN 13: 9780822956426
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128