Collected Poems

Bowers, Edgar

ISBN 10: 067945456X / ISBN 13: 9780679454564

Edité par Knopf, 1997

Knopf, 1997; stated first edition, with review slip laid-in; ix, 168pp. Good+ hardcover in unclipped dust jacket. Binding is tight, sturdy, and square; corners of black and grey quarter-cloth boards sharp; gilt titling remains bright and bold. Liquid damage to rear of book along spine, affecting dust jacket verso, blue-stamped top edge of text block and gutter, and endpapers. Wear to jacket is else minor. Interior is free of markings. Ships same or next day from Dinkytown, Minneapolis, Minnesota. N° de réf. du vendeur 315140

Synopsis :

Book by Bowers Edgar

Extrait: "A Fragment: the Cause"

What I remember is the spell, a mask
Of numbness on the face and on the body
Attention to a silent foreign call,
Rapt murmuring on the lips the one reply;
Later, the fall, the cry profane and life-long,
Convulsion, and our helplessness — a pillow
Under the head, a blanket, and the waiting;
Medicinal hope’s spent brevity, the spent
Bitterness of catastrophe’s relief.
I could remember everything, if I would,
But do not wish to or to tell the story,
Though none will know it when I, too, am dead,
The last of those who shared and witnessed it.

 
"Living Together"

Of you I have no memory, keep no promise.
But, as I read, drink, wait, and watch the surf,
Faithful, almost forgotton, your demand
Becomes all others, and this loneliness
The need that is your presence. In the dark,
Beneath the lamp, attentive, like a sound
I listen for, you draw near -- closer, surer
Than speech, or sight, or love, or love returned.

*************
Plus, commentary by Donald Justice
This dark little poem is about trying to come to terms with some hidden aspect of the self not wholly accessible to reason. The style has the beautiful stark dignity of many of Bowers's poems, but there is another side to his work which should be mentioned as well--a kind of cheerful stoicism that stemmed from his enormous zest for life. But then Bowers is not the first poet to live brightly and write darkly.

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : Collected Poems
Éditeur : Knopf
Date d'édition : 1997
Reliure : hardcover
Etat : Good+
Etat de la jaquette : Good+
Edition : First Edition.