Above the River: The Complete Poems [Paperback]

James Wright (Author), Donald Hall (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1992

One of the most admired American poets of his generation, James Wright (1927-80) wrote contemplative, sturdy, and generous poems with an honesty, clarity, and stylistic range matched by very few--then or now. From his Deep Image-inspired lyrics to his Whtimanesque renderings of Neruda, Vallejo, and other Latin American poets, and from his heartfelt reflections on life, love, and loss in his native Ohio to the celebrated prose poems (set frequently in Italy) that marked the end of his important career, Above the River gathers the complete work of a modern master. It also features a moving and insightful introduction by Donald Hall, Wright's longtime friend and colleague.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wright (1927-1980) has enjoyed a widespread influence on American poets; this collection of his life's work eloquently shows why. Born to a working-class family in Ohio, Wright was educated at Kenyon College, and though he traveled to Europe and lived in New York City, in his poetry he returned in an often elegiac mode to his industrially marred but still suggestive native Midwestern landscape. Writing with a "lonely wisdom" of life's fragility, Wright has few peers; his regrets over the limits of mortality, love and language are tempered, with utmost tenderness, by a sympathetic willingness to experience and endure. In purity of image, rhythm and solitariness of tone, Wright reflects the work of his admired Theodore Roethke and Edgar Arlington Robinson, as well as that of Robert Frost, but the aura of delicately wistful dreaming evoked in matchless free verse is his alone. In this collection, readers can handily compare Wright's early formal poems with his later, more fluid style; sandwiched in are his translations of work by Cesar Vallejo, Pablo Neruda and others.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Wright is one of the most influential poets of our time, and this volume reflects 40 years' work. As a young man, and a Yale Younger poet (1957), he embraced traditional forms even while addressing nontraditional subject matter: "When I went out to kill myself, I caught/ A pack of hoodlums beating up a man." The true power of Wright's poetry is most obvious in his free verse, where simple images and "the pure clean word" were all he needed to capture the almost unbearable tension between deathward suffering and the desire to endure, to love, and to accept the world's pleasures: "Suddenly I realize/That if I stepped out of my body I would break/ Into blossom." Wright's later poems are his best, a blend of pictures and sound, but whether he is writing tight iambs about his hometown in Ohio, free and daring lines about cold Minnesota, or even prose poems celebrating his Italian summers, his is "The poetry of a grown man." Essential for all serious collections.
- Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (April 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374522820
• ISBN-13: 978-0374522827
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have collection of poetry, July 2, 1998

By 

[e-mail] Russell McDonald (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Above the River: The Complete Poems (Paperback)

Both straightforward and evocative, James Wright's poetry is concerned with life's minutae and immense mystery. Combining a rural eye for the country with a critical intellect, many of his poems flirt with the central polarity of existence and death, particularly of the spirit, which he saw often in the blue collar world of his youth. Wright's poems find redemption through immersion in all of its aspects, much like the whores of Wheeling, West Virginia emerging from the Ohio River "drying their wings". The hopeless struggle for meaning and value imbue life with just those qualities, as he writes in 'Small Frogs Killed on the Highway': Still/I would leap too/Into the light/If I had the chance.

I recommend that you leap into the light for this book of poems. It is an important collection of poetry for anyone interested in post-war American poetry or American poetry in general.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Universality in Regional Voice, October 24, 2000

By 

Brian Woerner (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Above the River: The Complete Poems (Paperback)

This collection of Wright's work includes his experiments with formal blank verse, translations of German poets, experimental prose pieces, and characteristic free verse that made him one of America's strongest national poets with a regional identity. Wright's topics range from the pastoral landscape of people, wildlife, and industry near his Ohio hometown to the philosophical challenges of individuality, death, renewal, and union. The gray mountains, coal trains, steel bridges and murky Ohio River take their places beside docile horses, musical insects and colorful characters. But never does Wright falter to the mere reporting of a landscape through his poetry; the vision is always fresh, exacting, tense, and redemptive. I have used his work with many of my English students, and the feedback is celebratory. If you are a fan of poetry or a student of the craft, familiarize yourself with this book. Donald Hall's wonderful preface does justice to one of America's most fondly remembered poets.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking AND understandable contemporary poetry!, July 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Above the River: The Complete Poems (Paperback)

James Wright's mastery of the traditional formal elements of poetry coupled with his contemporary and timeless themes makes his collection of poetry one of the best I have ever read. The first reading of his works leaves the reader wondering. The second brings comprehension. The third and any subsequent readings mesmerize as Wright's web of imagery and contemplation becomes more intricate. It is a shame that more readers do not know of his fascinating works.