No Messages, the 2001 winner of the Ernest Sandeen Prize, is Robert
Hahn's second major collection of poetry. In commenting on Hahn's
first collection, All Clear, Richard Howard called attention to
Hahn's ability "to ground his perceptions, his discoveries in a
specific circumstance . . . to reach the risen condition, the state
beyond, which is the purpose of all his poems".
Howard's analysis anticipates the poems of No Messages, which
focus on particular places and characters while they progress,
through motions of the mind and maneuvers of language, toward a
'state beyond, ' which involves a reformulating or a re-seeing --
reconfigurations of an apprehended world through language and
form.
In its exploration of the seams and the seamlessness of language
and reality, No Messages is an apt introduction to the new
millennium. The "no messages" of the title reflects a basic tension
in contemporary poetry, between its claim to exit in the realms of
language and structure, and its sense of responsibility to render
the world in its actuality, in a clarified or confronted state. A
striking balance of this tension is found in the collection's
central section, a suite of poems responding to the influence of
James Merrill.
While No Messages is devoted to re-visionings of the world in
language, it remains grounded in circumstance and place and in the
actions and convictions of historical figures. The book opens with
John Knox on the beach at St. Andrews in Scotland and closes with
John Brown on the bank of the Pottowatamie River in Kansas. Between
these two shores, No Messages describes a series of luminous arcs
connecting this world and the world beyond.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(1)
(1)
