In his debut collection Ben Downing reimagines the possibilities of American poetry in terms of history, structure, rhythm, and rhyme. The poems in "The Calligraphy Shop" are highly formal but well shaped, elegantly poised yet picky in their choice of words, subjects, iambs, and trochees. Extremely erudite and often hilarious, sometimes bawdily so, this is an original collection by a brilliant young poet.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"His language, in all its dexterity and brilliance, winks at us even as it dazzles. " -- Eric Ormsby
"The Calligraphy Shop is an emporium of artfully eclectic wares and a treasury of reckonings." -- David Barber
"Unfashionable and lovely, these poems will be read when the fetid swamps of much contemporary verse have been drained away." -- David Yezzi
"The Calligraphy Shop is an emporium of artfully eclectic wares and a treasury of reckonings." -- David Barber
"Unfashionable and lovely, these poems will be read when the fetid swamps of much contemporary verse have been drained away." -- David Yezzi
From the Inside Flap
Erudite but never obscure, technically virtuosic yet playful and relaxed, Ben Downing reminds us that, pace T.S. Eliot, poets in our time need not be difficult to be good. The Calligraphy Shop is a sophisticated and superbly engaging first collection by a brilliant young poet.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetry doesn't always have to be serious,
By Barbara Blouin (Halifax, NS Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Calligraphy Shop (Paperback)
What I most loved about this book is the mix of poignant, exotic, obscure (occasionally, but worth the trouble) and often very funny. One poem, for example ("Pangur Blah") features the author's struggles with writer's block. He compares himself with his cat, who ("an urban beast, hence unemployed") does "naught but nap and shed and void."Rhymes and meters are impeccable. In this age of sloppy poetics, this book is a treat.
4.0 out of 5 stars
At Last, Wit and Passion,
By Serious Reader (Connecticut) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Calligraphy Shop (Paperback)
It's a marvel these days to come upon poems that have sense, sensibility, music, and passion, plus intelligence, all wrapped up in a single package. Downing is unfashionably brilliant, that is, he doesn't subscribe to any of the pieties of the "creative writing" establishment, and he sticks to (was it?) Ezra Pound, who said something like "poetry must be at least as well written as prose." Downing's stuff is delicious.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
