At the End of the Day: Selected Poems and an Introductory Essay [Paperback]

Phillip Lopate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0978555589 | ISBN-13: 978-0978555580

Philip Lopate writes: "Though I am known today mostly as an essayist, occasionally as a fiction writer, for about fifteen years I wrote poetry. I published poems in countless little magazines, gave readings all over, earned a living of sorts as a poet in the schools, teaching the art to children, and put out two collections: the first in 1972, the second in 1976. When I look back at those years during which poetry formed such an important part of my identity, I am tempted to rub my eyes, as though recalling a time when I ran off and joined the circus; yet at the time it seemed a logical enough pursuit."

Editorial Reviews

Review

Anyone eager for the performance of an adult, rich and animated intelligence will be grateful for Phillip Lopate's display of personality and experience. --New York Times Book Review

Phillip Lopate may be an American ambassador of nonfiction, but he is also a youthful, taciturn, love-seeking New York poet, whose poems' plainspoken, personal, darkly humorous quietly gather strength while confronting the beautiful and ugly in city life. I admire their vitality and honesty. --Henri Cole

About the Author

Phillip Lopate was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1943, and received a BA from Columbia in 1964, and a doctorate from the Union Graduate School in 1979. He has written three personal essay collections -- Bachelorhood (Little, Brown, 1981), Against Joie de Vivre (Poseidon-Simon & Schuster, 1989), and Portrait of My Body (Doubleday-Anchor, 1996); two novels, Confessions of Summer (Doubleday, 1979) and The Rug Merchant (Viking, 1987); two poetry collections, The Eyes Don't Always Want to Stay Open (Sun Press, 1972) and The Daily Round (Sun Press, 1976); a memoir of his teaching experiences, Being With Children (Doubleday, 1975); a collection of his movie criticism, Totally Tenderly Tragically (Doubleday-Anchor); an urbanist meditation, Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan (Crown, 2004); and a biographical monograph, Rudy Burckhardt: Photographer and Filmmaker (Harry N. Abrams, 2004.) In addition, there is a Phillip Lopate reader, Getting Personal: Selected Writings (Basic Books, 2003).

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Marsh Hawk Press (January 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978555589
• ISBN-13: 978-0978555580
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,728,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mature, sharp, and desperately human, March 31, 2010

By 

Amy L. Jenkins "AmyLouJenkins Dot Com" (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: At the End of the Day: Selected Poems and an Introductory Essay (Paperback)

Phillip Lopate's collection melds the wit of Frank O'Hara, the sense of self of Walt Whitman, and the Lopateness of humor and estrangement. He's so honest, he makes me blush. It's as if he knows too many of my secret frailties, as he exposes his own. There are no nouns for many of the emotions portrayed in "In the Time," yet the verse carries the resonance of recognized passions. I want to believe that love is more romantic than portrayed in "Hearts," yet the exacting exposure seems to codify the value of all our failing relationships. Nobody mixes petulance and charm like Lopate.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I should live so long..., June 21, 2010

By 

Simon G. Barrett (london, england) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: At the End of the Day: Selected Poems and an Introductory Essay (Paperback)

Thanks, Amy, for doing my work for me. I just happened upon this and in my excitement reviewed it for amazon.co.uk (check it out, folks) but basically I've been waiting for Phil's 'third book'(?) all my life. It's great that so many poets live so long these days and can still turn out work that equals their best (we won't talk about the other kind, those professionals who've been trading off their mega-reputations for years). Not that I put Phil in the 'elder poet' category, heaven forbid; you need to be pushing 80 for that - so keep at it, Phil! - but it's great that of the shaggier poets who we all thought would fade away so many still hang in there, like all those underground cartoonists and dubious musicians. Sorry this is so incoherent; Phil, like the late Saint Joe (Brainard), seems to have this effect on me. So what is it about his work? Well, I guess tenderness is as good a word as any. Bags of modesty too, not normally considered a poetic virtue, but sincerity and genuineness - genuine genuineness - are rarer among poets than they should be; in fact perhaps artistic endeavour generally is mostly about faking the genuineness. Lopate's disarming preface alone should win converts (though Breton doesn't take an accent, even in Noo Yawk).