After Greece: Poems (New Odyssey Series) [Paperback]

Christopher Bakken (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1931112010 | ISBN-13: 978-1931112017 | Publication Date: April 1, 2001

This collection is winner of the 2001 T S Eliot prize. An account of travel and a collection of ecstatic lyrics, these poems excavate an idea of place, one layered deep for the poet and archaeologist to discover. We encounter the obsessions of a hellenic barbarian - of an American poet residing in, not touring, an environment haunted by profane revelations and sacred commonplaces. We move beyond the crowded sites and restored monuments, to places where the presence of the ancient world is still palpable in the violent realities of the modern Balkans. Looking through these poems into artefacts and ruined places, we hear 'spirits of that barren landscape call out still', and we feel, again and again, what connects us to the past is stronger than what separates us from it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Christopher Bakken is assistant professor of English at Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa. He received his Ph.D. in English literature and creative writing from the University of Houston.

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Truman State Univ Pr (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931112010
• ISBN-13: 978-1931112017
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,529,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christopher Bakken was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1967. He is the author of two collections of poetry and is co-translator of a collection of Greek poetry by Titos Patrikios. He teaches at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Young Master, May 4, 2001

By 

Neil Arditi (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Greece: Poems (New Odyssey Series) (Paperback)

The title of Christopher Bakken's fully achieved first book of poems--"After Greece"--has multiple meanings. On the one hand, it alludes to the title of a poem by the late James Merrill, and Bakken is very much a poet of the line of Stevens, Frost, Bishop, Swenson, and Merrill. Like them, Bakken is a master craftsman. Like Merrill in particular, Bakken spent (and continues to spend) a significant portion of his days in Greece. Many of his poems juxtapose the ancient ruins of the West (and Byzantine East) with the holocaust-haunted,forever suprising,forever contradictory world of modern Greece. But the jutapositions are themselves mysterious, elegiac, epiphanic riddles. In its broadest sense, "After Greece" signifies our situation, late in the game of civilization. More narrowly, Bakken confronts the challenges of a neo-Romantic, modern American poet whose belated pilgrimage to Mount Helicon is overdetermined, almost absurdly so. But Bakken turns his lateness into an ever early candor. He has the lyric gift, the formal mastery, the wit and strength of invention, to make new myths--myths of self-creation in a world in which the sun must bear no name.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sore Loser, May 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: After Greece (New Odyssey Series) (Hardcover)

Readers interested in Christopher Bakken's After Greece but deterred by the harshly critical review posted here as "Turnip Juice" should ignore the first two paragraphs of that review and skip to the end, where the writer advises readers to "borrow [After Greece] from your friends who lost the T.S. Eliot Prize and got a 'free' copy." The knowledge that losers of this contest received a free copy of the winning book immediately identifies the writer from Dallas as one of those losers, and a bitter, graceless loser at that.

More importantly, reviews like "Turnip Juice" point out a serious flaw in the Amazon "open review" policy: without screening, anyone with a personal vendetta can have their opinion posted in a place that could have an actual impact on the book's sales. If you want to find out more about After Greece, wait until reviews appear in reputable journals, where the editorial staff will make sure that the review writer is qualified (unbiased) to review the book. Or, better yet, buy the book yourself and make up your own mind.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A moving read, June 19, 2001

By 

"peterbob" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Greece (New Odyssey Series) (Hardcover)

A profound sense of history (the very moving history of Greece) haunts this writer and these strong, strong poems. I loved the clarity and music here, the lyric sweep, the sensual depth, the vision. Very much worth checking out.