Boleros (Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets) [Paperback]

Jay Wright (Author)

Book Description

Series: Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets | Publication Date: April 1991

Like Jay Wright's previous poetry, Boleros provokes in the reader "a passion for what is hidden, " emphasizing names - of places, muses, saints' days - and the imaginative histories behind them. As always, the linguistic surface changes rapidly as Wright's geographic journeys become explicit explorations of poetic form. Boleros is more than a conventional collection of poems. Each part of the book connects to, engages with, and changes the others, so the book itself becomes a text in motion. These poems perform the creative process itself and succeed exquisitely in making the reader part of that process and its excitement.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This fascinating collection cannot be appreciated in a single reading. Numbered, untitled poems run across section headings, moving from complexity to what might best be termed "learned simplicity." The 46-page meditative title poem might be described as a lover's spiritual journey, traversing time and space, from America to Mexico to Scotland, from Self to Other. This poem is ambitious and difficult, but moments of lyric beauty are scattered throughout. "Saints' Days," the book's second section, is slightly more accessible. Mixing American slave heritage with Christian Mexico, the intertwined autobiographic narrative carries readers through a somewhat confusing sense of time and place. And finally, there are the relatively disappointing short poems that end the volume but do not, as Wright seems to have intended, provide a "Coda." For larger collections.
- Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

1
10
11
12
13
15
16
17
18
19
2
20
21
23: Nuestra Senora De Lourdes (february 11th)
24: San Juan De Dios (march 8th)
26: Corpus Christi (may 25th)
27: San Pedro/ San Pablo (june 29th)
28: Santa Cristina (july 24th)
29: Santa Clara (august 12th)
3
30: Nuestra Senora De Los Remedios (september 24th)
31: San Rafael Arcangelo (october 24th)
32: San Diego (november 13th)
33: Santa Barbara (december 4th)
34: The White Deer
35: Indian Pond
36
37
38
4
6
8
9
Bolero: 14
Bolero: 25. San Anselmo (april 21st)
Bolero: 39
Bolero: 5
Bolero: 7
Nuestra Senora De La Paz (january 24th)
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr (April 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 069101504X
• ISBN-13: 978-0691015040
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,884,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful & complex suite of poems., November 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Boleros (Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets) (Paperback)

The most recent book from Jay Wright is a wondeful & complex suite of poems. His work is transparent & concrete. Transparent in that one finds that elusive character commenting on the observations of a particular place. Concrete through the profundity of his philosophical investigations. Wright delivers here one of his very best "collections". These are not separate poems, but an interlocking system of "thought experience". If you are looking for an introduction to Wright's work, I would suggest the Selected Poems, but if you are familiar with this most elegant of poets, you will love this "set".