Dark Horses: New Poems (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) [Paperback]

X. J. Kennedy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1992 | Series: Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction

In "Dark Horses" prize-winning poet X.J. Kennedy gathers 42 new poems. From the lighthearted ballad "Dancing with the Poets at Piggy's" to the darkly meditative lyric "The Waterbury Cross", the poems show Kennedy's wide range. There are intimate portraits of a woman veterinarian and a young man dying of AIDS, a song about the Sri Lankan festival of Buddha's tooth, and a stark account of a confrontation with a homeless panhandler. "Emily Dickinson Leaves a Message to the World" on the newly installed answering machine in her Amherst homestead. Finding a "Woodpile Skull" - the severed head of a black ant makes the poet laugh at his own expense as he plays "ham Hamlet to a formic Yorick". X.J. Kennedy's first collection, "Nude Descending a Staircase" (1961) won the Lamont Award of the Academy of American Poets. His most recent collection, "Cross Ties: Selected Poems" (1985) received the "Los Angeles Times" Book Award for poetry.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kennedy, a prototype for many "new formalist" poets, is a painstaking craftsman whose work straddles that thin line between verse and poetry. At his weakest, he writes incidental poems commemorating late-night phone calls or a town dump. He's capable of trivializing serious subjects, as in a poem recalling the start of the Gulf war or in one creating humorous epigraphs for a graveyard. He delights in mocking contemporary contrivances: an Emily Dickinson poem is reworked to center on an answering machine; an empty house is programmed to "exude / Ninety minutes of Mozart on tape." At his sharpest, Kennedy offers a vision that is horrific, recalling James Wright's early work. He writes of finding a severed arm on the beach and of a lonely woman soaking dentures in Creme de Menthe. Watching his four-year-old son's hesitations at the dinner table, the speaker comments that "the animals you eat / Leave footprints in your eyes." Written in sing-song, nursery-rhyme iambics, his best poems prove that irony need not be frivolous. Kennedy's Nude Descending a Staircase, won the Lamont Award in 1961.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Mordant, funny, and even sometimes rather frightening; the poet, so much in control of his formal means, seems himself rather dismayed by the fearful things he points to.

(Hudson Review )

Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (October 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801844851
• ISBN-13: 978-0801844850
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,644,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Careful and Thoughtful, December 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Dark Horses: New Poems (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) (Paperback)

X.J. Kennedy is one of our finest American Poets. He has a loving respect for careful rhyme and meter that is heartening in this age of rambling, pretentious blather. His wit and insight are tightly honed in this excellent collection for adults.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars kennedy dark horses, May 16, 2002

By 

[e-mail] "[e-mail]" (Beaumont, tx USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dark Horses: New Poems (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) (Paperback)

X.J. Kennedy is of the old guard. Like Richard Wilbur and Anthony Hecht, the New Formalists have much respect for him. And for good reason, as this collection shows. Kennedy writes skillfully in meter and rhyme, and is one of the few poets who writes successfully in light verse (another poet who skillfully uses humor is R.S. Gwynn). Kennedy has also written children's books and textbooks, but this collection shows that his reputation as a poet will never wane.

4.0 out of 5 stars Kennedy has his finger on pulse, February 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dark Horses: New Poems (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) (Paperback)

I greatly enjoy Kennedy's light poetry. I'd like to find a published copy of X.J.Kennedy's "Old Men Pitching Horseshoes" Anyone know where I could find this?