Babylon in a Jar: New Poems [Hardcover]

Andrew Hudgins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 3, 1998

The poems in Babylon in a Jar extend the forceful explorations that Andrew Hudgins began with Saints and Strangers, his first book and a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize in 1985. Since then, he has probed the nature of Southern experience, the conflict between religion and worldliness, the origins of poetry, the exaltations and perils of family. In this volume he brings such issues down to the old conflict between order and disorder. He responds with passion to the natural world, to history, to inheritance: "before he flooded the rubble, he swept up the dust of Babylon / to give as presents, and he stored it in a jar." The breadth and sweep of these poems, their variety and fervor, surpass Hudgins's previous work in After the Lost War (winner of the Poets' Prize), The Never-Ending (a runner-up for the National Book Award), and The Glass Hammer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Casting a bemused eye on both ordinary and extraordinary experience, the poet of this fifth collection reports his discoveries in poems brimming with charm?and rigorous technique. Throughout, expressive line breaks and syntax combine with an everyday vocabulary to create a tone that beckons and disarms. One never struggles or puzzles over a Hudgins poem, but instead chuckles at the quandary of housekeys snagged on a power line ("Keys"), contemplates a neighbor's tree festooned with bottle glass ("The Bottle Tree") or reflects on the murder of a kindly jeweler ("How to Stop"). Unfortunately, even Hudgins's technical virtuosity cannot offset the colorlessness of his language, resulting in few lines or poems that resonate in a reader's memory. Too often Hudgins's subjects and treatment of them lack emotional urgency, lapsing into wordy narratives and descriptions, or merely interesting epiphanies. (A poem that begins crisply with the narrator saving the accidentally spilled ashes of a girl he once "flirted with/ ungracefully a time or two" ends with him disposing of them because "they are sheer dust/ and should be honored as the dust they are.") Some readers might detect a philosophical subtlety beneath these casual surfaces, only to be dropped back into formulaic confessional narrative by the end of the poem. One closes the book feeling entertained?often wonderfully so?but unmoved, unchanged.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Often flowing over the page in a sort of loose latticework of words, Hudgins's poems give an immediate sense of energy and freedom. There are little edges of violence throughoutAa copperhead strikes the poet's boot, even daffodils don't spring but eruptAand a sense of spinning just on the edge. But the poet is in control, bringing us back to safety: "before he flooded the rubble, he swept up the dust of Babylon/ to give as presents, and he stored it in a jar." Just be careful about opening the lid.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (August 3, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395909945
• ISBN-13: 978-0395909942
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,570,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrew Hudgins is the author of seven books of poems, including SAINTS AND STRANGERS, THE GLASS HAMMER, and ECSTATIC IN THE POISON. A finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, he is a recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships as well as the Harper Lee Award. He currently teaches in the Department of English at Ohio State University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Babylon In A Jar, January 13, 2000

By 

Martin Kim (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Babylon in a Jar: New Poems (Hardcover)

"After Muscling through sharp greenery and after lopping humped limbs back as far as lopping shears would take them"

So begins a poem in Babylon In A Jar who's structure and form evokes the mythic narrative quality of the best of Gary Snyder married to the intuitive grasp of rhythm that Dylan Thomas wrote in so well. Hudgins speaks in a common language rich in metaphor of simple moments in life, yet without wallowing in the sentimental.

This is by the far the strongest single voice in poetry to write consistently well - poem after poem, book after book, within the past decade. I checked out five of his titles from the library and opened each at random without disappointment. Nothing good said of this writer should be taken for hyperbole. Babylon In A Jar is among his best.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant book encompassing the verities of the heart., December 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Babylon in a Jar: New Poems (Hardcover)

Each of Andrew Hudgins' books makes one hunger for the next. His work is brilliant, true, and beautifully accessible.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry that hits you right between the eyes., March 29, 2008

By 

Tim Timmerman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Babylon in a Jar: Poems (Paperback)

I cannot recommend this book of poetry more highly. I have read Babylon in a Jar, over numerous times and still never grow weary of it. Andrew Hudgins has a way of combining what it is to be spirit and flesh in such a way that comes to terms with the essence of what it is to be human. His poems are funny, difficult, and from the heart. He is a man of experience who is willing to be transparent about his faults and shortcomings as he grapples with the circumstances he has created and the ones he finds himself surrounded by. "In the Red Seats" and "Rain" are powerful poems showing his range from finding the face of God in a drunkard to a poem speaking profoundly of the lives that are sacrificed so we may live. Hudgins merits more recognition than he receives.