Babel (Pitt Poetry Series) [Paperback]

Barbara Hamby (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pitt Poetry Series | Publication Date: November 7, 2004

Winner of the Donald Hall Prize in Poetry

Barbara Hamby's poems drift across histories and continents, from early writing and culture in Mesopotamia through the motion-picture heaven that seems so much like Paris, to odes on such thoroughly American subjects as hardware stores, bubblegum, barbecue, and sharp-tongued cocktail waitresses giving mandatory pre-date quizzes to lawyers.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Hamby, an award-winning poet as remarkable for her pep and juiciness as for her Whitmanesque inclusiveness, is mad for the "the dark drug of words." In her third exhilarating collection, she takes the mockingbird, that gifted imitator, as her mentor in a dazzling set of poems titled "The Mockingbird Blues," but Hamby is also a bit of a magpie, collecting odds and ends as she swoops through the sanctuaries of myth, art, and literature, and the flea market of pop culture. At once full of sass and formally brilliant--her ingeniously constructed poems are supersonic yet stop on a dime--Hamby is philosophical, sexy, and very funny. She writes of Paris and the Deep South, of bubble gum and Hieronymus Bosch, movies and the marquis de Sade, of the conga line of selves that make up a life, rock and roll, idolatry, and war. Hamby conjures up Babel but writes with breathtaking clarity, dispelling cacophony and diving right down into the funkiness of life and the wonder of existence. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“Hamby’s poems resemble spells, words cascading like Flora’s flowers. The result in a break-necking pace, and it is almost miraculous that this collection does not spin out of control. . . . These poems are tender, humble, and often humorous. . . . This collection does pack a punch.”
--ForeWord Magazine

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Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press; 1 edition (November 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822958597
• ISBN-13: 978-0822958598
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,006,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a flurry, whirlwind, and wonder, November 23, 2004

By 

Ana (chicago) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Babel (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Ms. Hamby is a truly gifted poet. Her words fly from the page like a swarm of butterflies and bees, buzzing and fluttering in an intense sphere tickling your every vein. Every poem is a fusion of rant, dance, and holler, lovliness, and song. This is a true gem.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Guest for the Ideal Dinner Party, May 13, 2005

By 

John Michael Albert "John-Michael Albert" (Portsmouth NH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Babel (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

This is a collection of complex, intense, extremely rich riffs on urban life in America and France -- right now. And, just in case all those adjectives makes you imagine I'm ranting about some sort of unfocussed, drugged out beat wannabe ramblings -- I mean Hamby is generous with her intelligence and sophistication and elaborates both into mind bending odes with a stunning sense of classical balance and judicious length. This poetry is as sexy as Miles Davis's type of cool. If I were still giving dinner parties every other week, I'd invite her over every other month. Not all the time, mind you; but DEFINITELY often.