The Eagle's Mile (Wesleyan Poetry Series) [Paperback]

James Dickey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1990 | Series: Wesleyan Poetry Series

A book of new poems by a major writer is an event. A book of new poems that marks a different, more powerful approach is cause for celebration. "What I looked for here," James Dickey tells us about The Eagle's Mile, "was a flicker of light 'from another direction,' and when I caught it - or thought I did - I followed where it went, for better or worse." In this new work, Dickey edges away from the narrative-based poems of his previous books and gives instead more primacy to the language in which he writes. His poetry gains flexibility, and his poetic power becomes even surer and more clearly expressed. "I have experimented," Dickey writes, "and look forward to experimenting more."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although departing from the narrative-based style of his past work, Dickey (one title/pk Falling, May Day Sermon, and Other Poems ) is still deeply committed to the presentation of reality in incongruous terms. His use of language itself is innovative; words are hitched together to create new, slightly unnatural juxtapositions (as in "the fountain-twist of flight" in the title poem). In some poems, such as "The Olympian," detailing the speaker's race around a swimming pool with a rat afloat, the poet disassembles ordinary situations, filters the pieces--his language and perceptions--through his imagination, and puts them back together in such a way that his experience has become a type of hallucination. Much of the poetry examines the poet's belief in the momentum of nature, "overcoming, coming over us / And from us," creating and destroying, propelling us headlong into the uncertainty of the future, never stopping to heed the authority of our rational minds. This demanding yet illuminating collection takes readers on a soaring, swooping flight to the outermost reaches of consciousness.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

It's exciting to see a poet of Dickey's stature take the risk of writing such an experimental book. He has blown wide open his traditional narrative, allowing for an intense word play reminiscent of Hopkins: " . . . steep and straight-up/ In the eagle's mile/ Let Adam, far from the close-smoke of mills/ And blue as the foot/ Of every flame, true-up with blind-side out-flash/ The once-more instantly/ Wild world: Over Brasstown Bald/ Splinter uncontrollably whole." Story and sense are not abandoned, but made subject to the sheer excitement of language: " . . . everywhere there is land,/ Brother: boundless,/ Earthbound, trouble-free, and all you want--/ Joy like short grass." This is writing on the edge, and not everything succeeds. But it marks a major departure for a major poet.
-Kathleen Norris, Lemmon P.L., S.D.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 76 pages
• Publisher: Wesleyan; 1st edition (October 15, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819511870
• ISBN-13: 978-0819511874
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,179,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)