Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems [Paperback]

William Meredith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 1997

A contemporary of John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, and Robert Lowell, William Meredith shared neither the bohemian excesses of the Beats nor the exhibitionist excesses of the "confessional" poets. Rather, Meredith was known from the beginning of his career as a poet whose unadorned, formal verse marked him as a singular voice. From his early, deeply personal poems to the later, less formal poems concerned with tolerance, civility, and shared values, Meredith's craft is marked by a thoughtfulness not often seen in poets of his, or successive, generations. He is the master of the poem that seems colloquial at first glance, but is in fact deliberately voiced, measured out, and shaped. His is a voice of unequaled honesty and clarity.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The New York Times Book Review wrote that William Meredith's poetry "suggests that we can recognize the hardest truths about ourselves and still live in the world." This collection, a summing up of Meredith's best writing over several decades, won the National Book Award, and is the sort of book readers will return to again and again for its considerable virtues: attention to craft, the ring of truth, and clarity in a world of muddle. Here's one favorite poem, titled "A Major Work": "Poems are hard to read / Pictures are hard to see / Music is hard to hear / And people are hard to love / But whether from brute need / Or divine energy / At last mind eye and ear / and the great sloth heart will move."

Review

Five Poems Of Guillaume Apollinaire: I. Autumn Crocuses
Five Poems Of Guillaume Apollinaire: Ii. Annie
Five Poems Of Guillaume Apollinaire: Iii. Mountebanks
Five Poems Of Guillaume Apollinaire: Iv. Autumn
About Opera
About Poetry
Accidents Of Birth
An Account Of A Visit To Hawaii
Airman's Virtue
The American Living Room: A Tract
Among Ourselves
An Assent To Wildflowers
At The Confluence Of The Colorado And The Little Colorado
At The Natural History Museum
At The Prado
Bachelor
The Ballet
Battlewagon
A Birthday Exercise
The Cheer
The Chinese Banyan
Consequences: 1. Of Choice
Consequences: Ii. Of Love
Consequences: Iii. My Acts
Country Stars
A Couple Of Trees
The Couple Overhead
Crossing Over
Dalhousie Farm
Do Not Embrace Your Mind's New Negro Friend
Dreams Of Suicide
Dying Away
Earth Walk
Effort At Speech
Envoi
Examples Of Created Systems: 1. The Stars
Examples Of Created Systems: 2. Archpelagoes
Examples Of Created Systems: 3. Work Camps And Prisons
Examples Of Created Systems: 4. Those We Love
Fables About Error: 1. A Ritual Mouse
Fables About Error: 2. A Fable Of Grackles
Fables About Error: 3. The Tale Of House Swallow On Cape Ann
Fables About Error: 4. Moral
The Fear Of Beasts
February 14
A Firescreen At Mount Vernon
The Fishvendor
Five Accounts Of A Monogamous Man: 1. He Thinks Of The Chin
Five Accounts Of A Monogamous Man: 2. He Marvels At The Pers
Five Accounts Of A Monogamous Man: 4. His Hands, On A Trip
Five Accounts Of A Monogamous Man: Iii. Sometimes He Contemp
Five Accounts Of A Monogamous Man: V. Lines From His Guest-b
Fledglings
For Air Heroes
For Guillaume Apollinaire
For His Father
For Two Lovers In The Year 2075 In The Canadian Woods
Freezing
The Ghosts Of The House
Give And Take
Godchildren
Grievances
Hazard Faces A Sunday In The Decline
Hazard's Optimism
Here And There
His Plans For Old Age
His Students
Homage To A Rake-hell
Homage To P. Mellon, I.m. Pei, Their Gallery And Washington
Housed (a Report On A Visiting Dog)
Hydraulics
Ideogram
The Illiterate
In Loving Memory Of The Late Author Of Dream Songs
In Memoriam Stratton Christensen
In Memory Of Donald A. Stauffer
In Memory Of Robert Frost
In The Middle Of The Long Friendship
In The Protestant Cemetery
In The Rif Mountains
The Jain Bird Hospital In Delhi
John And Anne
Journal Entry (april 1969, Villa Serbelloni)
Journal Entry (with The Udalls, June 1968): In The Canyon
June: Dutch Harbor
A Kodiak Poem
A Korean Woman Seated By A Wall
Last Things
Letter From Mexico (vera Cruz, 10 February 186-)
Look At Me! Look At Me!
A Major Work
Memoirs
A Metaphysical Sonnet
A Mild-spoken Citizen Finally Writes To The White House
Miniature
Music
My Mother's Life
Myself, Rousseau, A Few Others
Nausea
Navy Field
Nixon's The One
Not Both
Notes For An Elegy
Notre Dame De Chartres
Of Kindness
Of Possessions, In Winter
An Old Field Mowed For Appearances' Sake
An Old Photograph Of Strangers
On Falling Asleep By Firelight
On Falling Asleep To Birdsong
On Jenkins' Hill
The Open Sea
Original Aversions
Orpheus
Parents
Partial Accounts: I. Surgery
Pastoral
Perhaps The Best Time
Poem
Poem About Morning
Poem To Me
Politics
The Preponderance
The Quarrel
Quartet In F Major
Recollection Of Bellagio
Rem Sleep
Remembering Robert Lowell
The Revenant
Rhode Island
Roots
Rus In Urbe
The Seasons' Difference
Sonnet On Rare Animals
Squire Hazard Walks
Starlight
Sunrise With Crows
Talking Back (to W. H. Auden)
Ten-day Leave
Thoughts On One's Head (in Plaster, With A Bronze Wash)
The Three Sorts Of Violence: I. Natural
The Three Sorts Of Violence: Ii. Man-made
The Three Sorts Of Violence: Iii. Man-to-man
Transport
Tree Marriage
Trelawny At Sompting, 1879
Trelawny's Dream
Two Japanese Poems
Two Masks Unearthed In Bulgaria
A View Of The Brooklyn Bridge
A Vision Of Good Secrets
Waking Dream About A Lost Child
Walter Jenks' Bath
What I Remember The Writers Telling Me When I Was Young
Where He's Staying Now
Wholesome
Whorls
Winter On The River
Winter Song
Winter Verse For My Sister
Winter: He Shapes Up
The Wreck Of The Thresher (lost At Sea, April 10, 1963)
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 231 pages
• Publisher: Triquarterly; 1 edition (April 6, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810150719
• ISBN-13: 978-0810150713
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #782,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.