Customer Reviews

A Companion for Owls: Being the Commonplace Book of D. Boone, Long Hunter, Back Woodsman, & c.

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Perhaps I'm a dash sycophantic but, "A Companion for Owls" should contend for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. The previous reviewer must have abandoned his childhood fantasies long ago, because to give one star to this new volume points to a distinct lack of imagination. If at some point in your life you have not fantasized about being a Daniel Boone, an American alone on the frontier, surviving on wits and rifle alone, I pity you. There are few characters as quintessentially American as Boone, and Manning does a superb job issuing a voice to his persona. Because Boone spent so much of his life alone, there are great oppurtunities to fashion words for him, but also great peril if too many liberties are taken with the character. We all find a precious poetry in solitude, but rarely can it be translated to the page without it being cloying or inaccessible. Manning has found that solitude, but also a rustic sympathy that makes Boone terribly inviting. This volume is not dull. It is long, but also, comprehensive. It is prayer, memory, lamentation, regret, discovery, joy, selfishness, pain, humility, nature, urban encroachment, and most of the poems are great successes. Only 2 or 3 seem superfluous or misconceived. The end notes are a true joy. If every poet included such copious notes about their work people might not find poetry so impenetrable. And if every poet wrote verses so bright and well honed as Manning, they might not need end notes in the first place.

This is a remarkably fun book.. a must for Kentuckians! Manning seems to be channeling D Boon, and the result is some remarkable poems as well as insights and speculations. In "The Sum Result of Speculation" is Boone's account of his land surveying ""Marking off thousand-acre parcels is a lot of paces, a lot of steps to count in your head ... I'm sad to say, walking this country for money only brought be loss; but I never once got lost.". In Sleeping in the Wilderness ... "No matter how well you dress the hide / a buffalo rug will always smell like buffalo".

From this frontier are thoughts of Boone presented about the Corp of Discoveries, Audubon, Jefferson, and 10 things he would say to Colonel Richard Henderson ("Henderson, you cur, I'll wipe that smirk right off your face.". ). The final section on "Illustrations, Inventories, and Maps" shows that Manning is also a imaginative illustrator, the "ring of sadness" around an Image of Boone's foot (which is also the shape of Kentucky).

Be sure to read the notes associated with each poem in the back. These not only present interesting facts, but some of Manning's own thoughts. Finally is an essay tracing English Romanticism through Wordsworth to D Boon .. Bear killer.

i am not a reader of poetry ...in general.... i stumbled across this at my local library and love it... i bought 4 copies from amazon and my friends are getting one.. gives you just a hint of the mind set of early frontier free thinking men (women)....

First of all, I don't think the intention was ever to be historical, so anyone expecting that will be sorely disappointed. It is a book of poetry that deals with human interactions with nature, etc. I wish I had time to be more thurough in this discription! Read it, though, even if you are just checking it out from the Library.

I wanted to enjoy Maurice Manning's second book more than I actually did. While the premise of a series of poems based on Daniel Boone's life is fascinating, the poems themselves start to break down, about mid way through the book until they seem overly focused on delivering information as if Manning simply wanted to include more of the research and especially the letters section are just that, letters. It's less important, at least to me to stick to the historical facts alone, though historical figures can often be more interesting than any purely fictional characters. Anyway, the last few poems almost make up for the letters as the poems return back to actual poems. Read this collection for the first and last section of poems.

I was disappointed with this book because although, I knew in advance that it is fictional poetry, most if the information it communicates about Daniel Boone is just completely inaccurate falsehoods. As a Boone descendant and historian, it was a disappointing read. The author appears to have written many things based solely on rumor without even doing any verifiable research. Otherwise he would not have written a lot of the stuff he wrote - good example; "D. Boone Kilt Bar on This Tree, 1760." Things he says about Boone and his faithful wife in that "poem" are untruths and writings such as this only perpetuate false rumors. I would love a book of poetry about Boone - this is not one. It is a book about some fictional character that bears very little if any resemblance to Daniel Boone the real person. The author of A Companion for Owls does not know Daniel Boone.