Customer Reviews

Elegiac Feelings America

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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This is a great book of poetry by a sadly neglected American poet. Corso is probably one of the greatest poets of the twentieth-century, and yet academics will dismiss him as a "Beatnik."

In this book, Corso steers away from grandoise language and imagery, in favor of more "clear" language and ideas. But it is powerful in its compactness indeed. Get this book, and find out for yourself.

Corso in this book writes in a clear, concise language, a rabid indictment of alot of America. He is written off as one of many: standing in the line of poets behind Ginsberg and Kerouac BUT, at least technically, probably either equals or surpasses them.

This was the book that allowed me to see mid-twentieth century American poetry okay (in high school) when I wanted to write it off as a bunch of wasted filth. I've since come around to a lot more of it.... ;)

Definatley read this book if you have the oppurtunity. Well worth your effort.....

This is my first time reading Corso. Although I have never been a dedicated admirer of poetry as a literary style -- in this case -- I was inspired. And I hope this work will influence my own writing. The impressions conveyed by these poems are visual-visceral; sometimes raw, but rarely disgusting à la W. S. Burroughs. Corso's compound-word-creations and word-play-deconstructions provide great embellishment to his unique style. At first, Corso's stream of consciousness reminded me of Kerouac, but Corso goes more for the jugular via his servings of brute reality "samples" -- he is fully submerged in the realm of the subjective. That being said, he can be just as ethereal as he is blunt.

I especially enjoyed Corso's geopolitical views via "The American Way" (which foresees the rise of Evangelism and the decline of USA in general) -- and, in the same vein, "America Politica Historia, In Spontaneity". Other highlights include "Work" from "Triptych: Friend, Work, World", and the Egyptology-inspired drawings of "The Geometric Poem". "The Geometric Poem" appears in Corso's handwritten script and is often barely legible -- ultimately, I prefer the scribblings of "The Geometric Poem" over the text -- those drawings remind me of the album jacket liner artwork of the Jefferson Airplane's 1967 psychedelic masterpiece, "After Bathing at Baxer's". I'm giving this collection 5 stars because although I did not love the text unconditionally or unanimously -- what I did enjoy, which was the bulk of it, I found to be superlative. In closing -- I'm happy to have run across "Elegiac Feelings American", and I look forward to reading more of Corso's work. I am also very surprised that only 2 others on Amazon have reviewed this book!

Stephen C. Bird, author of "Hideous Exuberance: A Satire"