In the Crevice of Time: New and Collected Poems (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) [Paperback]

Josephine Jacobsen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0801863392 | ISBN-13: 978-0801863394 | Publication Date: May 8, 2000

Josephine Jacobsen's distinguished career as poet and writer spans more than six decades, from the publication of her first poem at age eleven to her 1994 American Academy of the Arts Citation, which celebrated her as a recipient of "almost every major poetry award." From 1971 to 1973 she served two terms as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a post recently retitled National Poet Laureate. Now in paperback, In the Crevice of Time brings together 176 new and previously published poems by one of the most accomplished and most widely acclaimed poets of our time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One turns to Jacobsen's poems not for flashy, egotistical juggling, but as to an old friend, for her dependable, philosophical voice, rich in technique and free from cliche. She imagines eliminating the "monosyllable love" from our language in the hope that someone "will enunciate a syllable/ of force" to replace it. "What small/ metaphors we set/ ourselves," she laments elsewhere, and in poem after poem proves this need not be the case. Her gaze is often directed outward, sighting the estranged or deformed: clowns with highly individualized sorrows, deaf-mutes watching baseball. Whatever handicaps these subjects bear don't generate pity; if anyone seems deficient it will be the reader. Because her poems don't fall into easily recognizable categories- political, confessional, nature, or even formalist poetry (though she writes well in her share of forms)-Jacobsen is seldom anthologized. Yet her work has withstood the test of time better than many of her more-often-read contemporaries from the 1940s and 1950s. Her latest poems are modern and forceful.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

The collected poems of a greatly gifted poet may not offer the suspense of a well-plotted novel, but there is still a certain drama in seeing the art of a life's work fitted between the covers of one book... The recent poems that make up the last section are some of Jacobsen's very best.

(New Criterion )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (May 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801863392
• ISBN-13: 978-0801863394
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,374,666 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

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Poet's Poet, March 29, 2000

By 

JAL "jlwest" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Crevice of Time: New and Collected Poems (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) (Hardcover)

Ms. Jacobsen is not a poet whose name will ring familiar with most Americans, which is unfortunate. She writes wonderfully controlled, strange & sonorous poetry which is read and celebrated by other writers practicing the craft. This book is filled with poems which Ms. Jacobsen manages to make seem effortless - in the poem "The Monosyllable" for example, she says "It took care of rain, short/ noon, long dark./ It had rough kin;/ did not stall./ With it, she said,/ I may,/ if I can,/ sleep...." And in another lovely poem titled "Yellow," she writes: "...it appeared/ to carve the curve of clouds/ and, as sun, shatter them./ The stars grew yellower/ yellow whirls on wheels on whirls/ leaves flew yellow/ the corn sprang/ yellow and the crows/ winged with a yellow nimbus." I wish this book were on the bookshelves of many more people. Ms. Jacobsen has won numerous awards and deserves to be read by a more general population beyond the confines of academia. This is a book filled with melodious language and startling imagery, both of which are extended by a sharp intellect. And as a collection from other books, this a hefty volume & a real bargain.