The Great Fires: Poems, 1982-1992JOYCE'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. "From the Trade Paperback edition." |
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Page 17
When he put his ear against the massive door , there were spirits singing inside . He hunted for it afterward . In Madrid , he heard a bell begin somewhere in the night rain . Worked his way through the tangle of alleys , the sound ...
When he put his ear against the massive door , there were spirits singing inside . He hunted for it afterward . In Madrid , he heard a bell begin somewhere in the night rain . Worked his way through the tangle of alleys , the sound ...
Page 62
Went back to my desk until somebody raised the trap door of the well . It was the one with the cane , looking down inside . But I was annoyed when the locked door rattled where the grain and wine were . Went to the kitchen window and ...
Went back to my desk until somebody raised the trap door of the well . It was the one with the cane , looking down inside . But I was annoyed when the locked door rattled where the grain and wine were . Went to the kitchen window and ...
Page 71
A GHOST SINGS , A DOOR OPENS Maybe when something stops , something lost in us can be heard , like the young woman's voice that seemed to come from an upstairs screened porch . There were no lights in the house , nor in the other houses ...
A GHOST SINGS , A DOOR OPENS Maybe when something stops , something lost in us can be heard , like the young woman's voice that seemed to come from an upstairs screened porch . There were no lights in the house , nor in the other houses ...
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - Eoin - LibraryThingAn uncompromising book about living willfully. This is my favorite book by my favorite living poet. If I have not bought it for you yet, I will. Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - IlieRuby - LibraryThingMy all-time favorite book of poetry. Gilbert is at his best in this amazing distillation of the tremulous bonds between lovers as one approaches the end of her life and then the aftermath. His poem, "Tear It Down" often reminds me about the necessity of intention in marriage. Read full review
Contents
GOING WRONG | 3 |
GOING THERE | 16 |
THE SPIRIT AND THE SOUL | 23 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown
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Bibliographic information
| Title | The Great Fires: Poems, 1982-1992 |
| Author | Jack Gilbert |
| Publisher | A.A. Knopf, 1994 |
| Original from | the University of California |
| Digitized | 11 Jun 2008 |
| ISBN | 0679425764, 9780679425762 |
| Length | 90 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |