From Amazon.com
Harold Bloom, one of this country's most respected literary critics, has this to say: "No contemporary poet, in America, is likelier to become a classic than A. R. Ammons." With
Glare, Ammons once again has proven himself a master of the long poem, the short line, and a deep and sympathetic humor in the face of life's absurdities. Ammons wants you to understand that your life, and the lives of those you love, would mean nothing to any of the sizable meteors that could crash into the earth at any time, killing us all, but he doesn't stop there. The cosmic game is stunningly vast, he writes, and, after all "it is / nice to be included, especially from / so minor a pew: please turn, in yr / hymnals, to page 'archie carrying on / again' ..." Ammons is a great poet not content to rest on his laurels.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
In his 1968 essay, "A Poem Is a Walk," Ammons described poetry as being able to incorporate "contradictions, inconsistencies, explanations." His long poems demonstrate that theory, leaving him room to be humanist, philosopher, scientist, naturalist, teacher, family man, and sexual being. Writing in his familiar couplets on another roll of adding-machine tape, he reminds readers of his last book-length poem, Garbage (1993 National Book Award winner). He wants "Strip" to be akin to litter, however, casually strewn everywhere: "I have plenty and/ give plenty away, why, because here/ at nearly 70 stuff has bunched up/ with who knows how much space to/ spread out into." Or, again: "strip typing is/ like strip mining: you peel the/ surface off things shoving clutterment/ downhill." "Scat Scan," the book's shorter poem, is harder to pin down. Again, Ammons is discursive, delighting in wordplay. He sums up his life through twisted proverbs and ingeniously echoes Frost's two most famous poems, "The Road Not Taken" and "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening." As with all of Ammons's books, this volume is essential.?Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
