The Continuous Life,: Poems [Paperback]

Mark Strand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 1992

A collection of poems by 1991's Poet Laureate of the United States and a MacArthur Fellow includes a variety of poems and prose poems ranging from high oracular to low comic. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Published simultaneously?though the Selected Poems is an update of a 1980 edition?these two books reveal a "laconic, surreal vision" (LJ 11/1/90).
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A.m.
Always; For Charles Simic
Cento Virgilianus
Chekhov: A Sestina
The Continental College Of Beauty
The Continuous Life
Danse D'hiver
The Empire Of Chance
The End
The Famous Scene
Fear Of The Night
Fiction
From A Lost Diary
Grete Samsa's Letter To H.
Grotesques: The Couple
Grotesques: The Hunchback
Grotesques: The King
The History Of Poetry
The Idea
Itself Now
Life In The Valley
Luminism
The Midnight Club
Narrative Poetry
One Winter Night
Orpheus Alone
Reading In Place
Se La Vita En Sventura ...?
To Himself
Translation: 1
Translation: 2
Translation: 3
Translation: 4
Translation: 5
Travel
Velocity Meadows
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (May 30, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679738444
• ISBN-13: 978-0679738442
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.2 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,284,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Desert Isle, March 20, 2001

By 

"katejohns" (Azalea Garden (The Thames)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Continuous Life,: Poems (Paperback)

I gave this book the desert isle test; would I want it on a desert island if my library were limited to 100 American poetry books from 1990 and since. The answer is yes, this is Strand's best, it honors beauty as only the most refined aesthete could do. In these pages you will find Strand's quivalents [my equivocal way of saying `equivalents'] to "Ode on Melancholy" and Stevens's "Sunday Morning" and "Comedian as the Letter C." In a word, this is an elegant volume, as elegant as it is romantic.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the Greatest living poets, February 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Continuous Life,: Poems (Paperback)

You can count the great american poets who are writing today on a thumbless hand with mark strand as the palm. The poem "The Continuous Life" has been refered to as the perfect poem and I've asked my grandchildren to read the final poem in the volume "The End" at my graveside. We need poetry as a people and as individuals and if you have the nature to hear and feel it,poetry is the only truth there is.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Musical, highly visual, and spirititually longing poetry, November 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Continuous Life,: Poems (Paperback)

I highly recommend these poems! Experts will have their reasons for loving Strand. As for myself, I find them accessible, moving, musical, visual, and just flat out great to read. Forget "what they mean," this guy can write. But then, I also find them edifying in the same way that Ecclesiastes is edifying. Good stuff.