The Bitter Withy [Paperback]

Donald Revell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

Acclaimed poet Donald Revell continues to avow devotion to the pastoral tradition in this pilgrimage through the mind's Eden. Joy and mortality instruct these poems, using nature to inform the spirit and assemble the dream of human happiness and unification.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Readers familiar with the unapologetically spiritual lyricism Revell has been distilling throughout his career won't be surprised by his 10th collection's sweetly poetical lexicon (rainbows, flowers, celestial bodies, trees and birds abound) and hymnlike sentiments: When God prays, the sky turns blue. New readers might better appreciate the book's radical strangeness and daring. Revell's voice has become ecstatic, but it has also remained clear, so his intensely personal, even visionary accounts and meditations are rendered with lucidity and ease: Once Christ, like a girl,/ Held a buttercup under my chin. Stunning imagery (I am toys/ lost on polar ice) and brilliant turns of thought (What makes actual human happiness/ Nearly unbearable is its reality) add interest to what might have been too pious, too simple: This has nothing to do with Jesus/ Though he is right here beside me. What makes this book truly exceptional is its determination to come to terms with death (one's own, others' and the mere fact of it) with faith, dignity and even wit. My death and I are a magical hermit, Revell writes, and in another context, the sentence might be thought simply clever. Here, it is also poignant—also, a revelation. (Sept.)
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About the Author

Poet, translator, and critic Donald Revell has authored ten previous collections of poetry. Winner of the 2008 NEA Translation Award, the 2004 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and two-time winner of the PEN Center USA Award in Poetry, Revell has also received fellowships from the NEA, Ingram Merrill, and John Simon Guggenheim memorial foundations. He is poetry editor of the Colorado Review.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Alice James Books; First Edition edition (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882295765
• ISBN-13: 978-1882295760
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,337,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Poet, translator and critic Donald Revell is the author of nine previous collections of poetry, most recently Pennyweight Windows: New and Selected Poems. Winner of the 2004 Lenore Marshall Award and two-time winner of the PEN Center USA Award in Poetry,