Describe Books Conducive To The Great Fires
| Original Title: | The Great Fires: Poems, 1982-1992 |
| ISBN: | 0679747672 (ISBN13: 9780679747673) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Jack Gilbert
Paperback | Pages: 96 pages Rating: 4.34 | 2083 Users | 127 Reviews
Specify Epithetical Books The Great Fires
| Title | : | The Great Fires |
| Author | : | Jack Gilbert |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 96 pages |
| Published | : | February 13th 1996 by Knopf (first published February 13th 1994) |
| Categories | : | Poetry. Fiction |
Rendition As Books The Great Fires
JOYCE'S MOTTO has had much fame but few apostles. Among them, there has been Jack Gilbert and his orthodoxy, a strictness that has required of this poet, now in the seventh decade of his severe life, the penalty of his having had almost no fame at all. In an era that puts before the artist so many sleek and official temptations, keeping unflinchingly to a code of "silence, exile, and cunning" could not have been managed without a show of strictness well beyond the reach of the theater of the coy.The "far, stubborn, disastrous" course of Jack Gilbert's resolute journey--not one that would promise in time to bring him home to the consolations of Penelope and the comforts of Ithaca but one that would instead take him ever outward to the impossible blankness of the desert--could never have been achieved in the society of others. What has kept this great poet brave has been the difficult company of his poems--and now we have, in Gilbert's third and most silent book, what may be, what must be, the bravest of these imperial accomplishments.
Rating Epithetical Books The Great Fires
Ratings: 4.34 From 2083 Users | 127 ReviewsCommentary Epithetical Books The Great Fires
Two of Jack Gilbert's poems, "Finding Something" and "Michiko Dead" appear in "The Poet's Companion" by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux, as examples of how to use metaphor in writing poetry. These two poems impressed me so much that for a long time I wanted to read more of Gilbert's work, hence I was excited to find this collection. Gilbert's use of language is surprising, direct, and reaches an astonishing depth. Sometimes the poems seem to wander a bit, making them difficult to understandUm, holy shit, Jack Gilbert.
On the surface, these poems might seem overly simple, perhaps even a tad mundane and at times weepy/maudlin. This is unassuming, earnest, tender, thoughtful stuff. Many of the poems ("Gift Horses," "I Imagine the Gods") are variations on the same theme: a mellow, older man singing the praises of raw fleshly experience, creaturely love, and lonely fumbling sex (in all its heartwrenching transience and unspoken desperation). Trying to find significance in little things, because significance is the
I cannot find another poet like Gilbert. Most of his poems, at least in this book, carry with them a quiet feeling of isolation- a bitter-sweet feeling of nostalgia that both bites and repairs the heart. It's difficult to know how to feel when reading his poems, but one thing is for certain; you will feel.
Once again I'm at a loss for words when I try to write about poetry. I can't pretend I really know enough about the technical side of writing poetry, to write an informed review, and can merely give my personal opinion. Most of the time the poems felt too full. Not necessarily too long, but rather as if the writer couldn't quite get at the point he wanted to make, and just tried to throw more words on the page in an attempt to reach the centre of a feeling, and then left it like that. It never
I did like some of the poems (Haunted Importantly, Betrothed, What is There to Say?, Michiko Dead, How to Love the Dead) but I hated a huge number of them. Hate is the wrong word - more that I found them distasteful or faux-wise or the cadence just felt off.
It slowly dawned on me that I somehow went through far too many years of BFA poetry workshops without learning my lesson - I always assume poems are fictional. It's always uncomfortable when I realize someone's beautiful, earnest poems are actually grounded in their real life because then I know far too much about them and, like, we don't know each other well for us to get embarrassingly personal, dude. That dead wife? Real dead wife. Which, man.But FUCK can Jack Gilbert write. The absolute
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