Selected Poems of Charles Olson (Paperback)

This is a selection of the poems - mostly from previously published collections - that, if you admire the small range and intensity of Creeley's work, have probably prompted your admiration. There are poems of mild wit, simple pleasure and even gaiety ("Ballad of the Despairing Husband") here; but the dark, laconic poem of no particular event ("The Innocence," "The Immoral Proposition") prevails. More: these last are poems of half-specified instinct, and while Creeley's speech is common and colloquial, the special quality of his line has nothing to do with common diction. He often confounds the passing of time with confused subjects and compound tenses: "What/ has happened/ makes/ the world./ Live/ on the edge,/ looking." Poems such as this ("Here" in its entirety) have made Creeley known as the most skillful practitioner of what Charles Olson called "projective verse" - that poetry which yields to the reader a carefully restructured account of whatever he can lend it. Nevertheless, these poems are various, and remarkably spare and affective; they provide a comprehensive introduction to Creeley's poetry for those who don't know it, and a fine review for those who do. (Kirkus Reviews)

"I have assumed a great deal in the selection of the poems from such a large and various number, making them a discourse unavoidably my own as well as any Olson himself might have chosen to offer. I had finally no advice but the long held habit of our using one another, during his life, to act as a measure, a bearing, an unabashed response to what either might write or say."--Robert Creeley
A seminal figure in post-World War II literature, Charles Olson has helped define the postmodern sensibility. His poetry embraces themes of empowering love, political responsibility, the wisdom of dreams, the intellect as a unit of energy, the restoration of the archaic, and the transformation of consciousness--all carried in a voice both intimate and grand, American and timeless, impassioned and coolly demanding.
In this selection of some 70 poems, Robert Creeley has sought to present a personal reading of Charles Olson's decisive and inimitable work--"unequivocal instances of his genius"--over the many years of their friendship.

General

Imprint:	University of California Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	December 1997
First published:	December 1997
Authors:	Charles Olson
Editors:	Robert Creeley
Dimensions:	203 x 156 x 19mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	224
ISBN-13:	978-0-520-21232-9
Categories:	Books
LSN:	0-520-21232-0
Barcode:	9780520212329

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