- Paperback: 83 pages
- Publisher: Hopkins Fulfillment Service; 1 edition (Aug 19 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0801890659
- ISBN-13: 978-0801890659
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.5 x 0.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 23 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
Smith turns 90 this year, so don't carp about the several previously collected poems in this book. Instead, appreciate the book's exquisite arrangement and the concern of the collection as a whole with linking eras of life and art. -- Ray Olson Booklist 2008 In this utterly delightful book, variety is matched by insight. -- Tom D'Evelyn Providence Journal 2008 Few poets go on writing well into old age, but the Louisiana-born William Jay Smith is one of them. Still going strong, his poetry, marked by great technical skill, is witty and satiric, poignant and humane... Smith's poetry offers sensuous pleasure and intellectual delight. -- Jeffrey Meyers New Criterion 2009 Words by the Water is very much recommended reading for poetry fans. -- James A. Cox Midwest Book Review 2008
Product Description
William Jay Smith has been one of the most respected figures on the literary scene for more than half a century. Two of his thirteen poetry collections were finalists for the National Book Award, and the present volume is clearly the work of a true American master.
The volume opens with a poetic sequence, "The Atoll," concerning the tiny coral island of Palmyra during World War II. Finding himself on the narrow rim of an extinct volcano at almost the exact center of the Pacific, water on all sides, breakers pounding the reef, the poet evokes the distinct sensation that he had of being at the heart of Herman Melville's "oceans vast." In lines resonant and memorable, he recalls the "terrifying beauty" of standing at night on what seemed then the very edge of the earth.
The poet next addresses our current daily terror -- war and destruction. In "Invitation to Ground Zero" he presents a moving tribute to a victim of the September 11 disaster, while in "Willow Wood" a soldier, having recently lost both his legs in a roadside blast, utters without a trace of self-pity strong words on future wars. Tragedy marks many of these pages, but Smith does not forget his lifelong commitment to witty and satiric verse. To introduce several hilarious pieces, he reprints the celebrated poem "Dachshunds." Simplicity and musicality have given his wedding songs a wide audience. Several of them are here, including an extraordinary new one, "The Bouquet."
Variety has always characterized Smith's work. Words by the Water is particularly varied and unusually youthful and fresh.
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An anthology of one of the great American minds of poetry, William Jay Smith, Dec 12 2008
By Midwest Book Review - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Words by the Water (Paperback)
Chosen by the government as a consultant on poetry, "Words by the Water" is an anthology of one of the great American minds of poetry, William Jay Smith. Drawing on his massive experience as a man and a scholar of poetry, he presents some of his own, and fails to disappoint. "Words by the Water" is very much recommended reading for poetry fans. "Contemplation of Conspiracy":Where the table-leg projects into the yellow autumn/sunlight/like the poor premise of an argument,/the plotters gather, rotting wood at a creek's end/tirelessly planning the devastation of the spirit,/wiring the heart for a final explosion.//Where can they lead you but over the bridges of beetroot/into the country of spiders?//Do not follow them to their camp pitched in a cranny; bring your fist down hard on the table .../ and send them flying.
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