George Oppen Man And Poet

This book offers a detailed look into the life and works of Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish American poet George Oppen. Born in 1908 in New York State, Oppen spent parts of his life working as a die cutter and carpenter and later running a furniture factory. Like the work he did with his hands during those years, his poetry used basic materials; he favored short, simple nouns and focused on concrete objects rather than abstractions. This book examines the characteristics of Oppen's work, particularly his use of small and often odd phrasings and unusual line formations to express the ultimately inexpressible. The first three chapters delve into his primitive modes, language and materials. Subsequent chapters tackle his subjects: cityscapes, light and water, and then animals and their relation to human history and struggles. His final collection of poems, Primitive, is examined in its own chapter, which is followed by an exploration of recurring specific phrases and concrete images. The author demonstrates how Oppen's poetry restores to readers an essential dimension of communication and experience that has been ignored or forgotten.

"George Oppen's New Collected Poems gathers in one volume all of the poet's books published in his lifetime (1908-84), as well as his previously uncollected poems and a selection of his unpublished work." "Editor Michael Davidson has written an introduction to the poet's life and work and supplies generous notes that give readers a deeper understanding of the background of the individual books and references in the poems. Essayist Eliot Weinberger provides a personal remembrance of the poet in his preface, "Oppen Then." This new, revised paperback edition also includes an extraordinary CD of the poet reading from each of his poetry books. Culled from obscure, rarely heard recordings of Oppen when he was in New York, San Francisco, and London at different times in his life, the CD adds a unique dimension to the lifework of one of America's finest poets."--BOOK JACKET.

This comprehensive volume contains all Sylvia Plath's mature poetry written from 1956 up to her death in 1963. The poems are drawn from the only collection Plath published while alive, The Colossus, as well as from posthumous collections Ariel, Crossing the Water and Winter Trees. The text is preceded by an introduction by Ted Hughes and followed by notes and comments on individual poems. There is also an appendix containing fifty poems from Sylvia Plath's juvenilia. This collection was awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. 'For me, the most important literary event of 1981 has been the publication, eighteen years after her death, of Sylvia Plath's Collected Poems, confirming her as one of the most powerful and lavishly gifted poets of our time.' A. Alvarez in the Observer

A selection of innovative poems by the groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize winner.

Here put your head, that desires nothing except familiarly: There your feet, bending your knees so that, bare (I remember from childhood), they would smell salt-sweet. --from 21 Poems