Amazon.com Review
Larry Levis was an outstanding poet, and a student and colleague of Philip Levine. Levine, who edited this posthumous manuscript, writes that Levis's "early death is a staggering loss for our poetry, but what he left is a major achievement that will enrich our lives for as long as poetry matters." That's high praise, and the poems in Elegy are sturdy enough to carry the weight of those expectations. Especially striking is "The Oldest Living Thing in L.A.," an encounter between urbanites trapped within the prisons of their routines, and an ancient-seeming possum crossing a busy city street: "It would lift its black lips & show them / The reddened gums, the long rows of incisors, / Teeth that went all the way back beyond / The flames of Troy & Carthage..." Levis's writing is marked by memorable imagery that resonates both to the world of our daily lives and our mythic longings for transcendence.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Review
"A landmark work written by one of America's finest poets. The imagery and mastery of tonal discipline, the way the poems feed off each other, and even the music of the line delicately posited with jazz improvisation, all make this book an important work to have close at hand." -- Richmond [VA] Times-Dispatch
"Elegy . . . often reveals the harsh nature of poetry as our age has insisted on it. These new poems carry Levis's speculative impulse far into the mind's shadows. . . . -- New York Times Book Review
"Everyone who cares about contemporary American poetry should read Levis's posthumous Elegy; despite quite a bit of dead-pan humor and a recurring air of self-mockery, it's a heartbreaking book." -- Jacqueline Osherow in The Antioch Review (Winter 1999)
"Levis's lines are never burnished in the way that [Charles] Wright's can be, but Levis possessed the same near-perfect pitch, and had reached a similar level of free-verse mastery. ...the poems are never less than brilliant." -- David Wojahn in The Kenyon Review, Summer/Fall 1998
"Published after the author's death in 1996, this resonant collection captures the poet at his peak, offering jazz improvisations on a fragmented world." -- Fodder: News from the Hungry Mind
"The poems in Larry Levis' posthumous book, Elegy, are haunted, a weave of lyrical 'riffs,' plangent scenes, and demotic narratives. Levis hones his discursive style masterfully here, turning frequently to objective correlatives in order to complement the poems' intense emotions. . . ." -- Harvard Review
"There isn't a false word anywhere. It is poetry that you read silently to yourself, then read it over again and get up out of your chair to take over and read aloud to someone else so you can share the thoughts and the music and hear the sounds of the words out loud.... -- The Fresno Bee
Anastasia And The Sandman
Boy In Video Arcade
The Cook Grew Lost In His Village, The Village In The Endles
Elegy Ending In The Sound Of A Skipping Rope
Elegy For Poe With The Music Of A Carnival Inside It
Elegy For Whatever Had A Pattern In It
Elegy With A Bridle In Its Hand
Elegy With A Chimneysweep Falling Inside It
Elegy With A Petty Thief In The Rigging
Elegy With A Thimbleful Of Water In The Cage
Elegy With An Angel At Its Gate: 1. Muir In The Wilderness
Elegy With An Angel At Its Gate: 2. Bunny Mayo In The New
Elegy With An Angel At Its Gate: 3. Stevens
Elegy With An Angel At Its Gate: 4. Like The Scattered Beads
Elegy With The Sprawl Of A Wave Inside It
In 1967
The Oldest Living Thing In L.a.
Photograph: Migrant Worker, Parlier, California, 1967
The Poem Returning As An Invisible Wren To The World
Shiloh
The Smell Of The Sea
The Thief In The Painting
The Two Trees
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
"Elegy . . . often reveals the harsh nature of poetry as our age has insisted on it. These new poems carry Levis's speculative impulse far into the mind's shadows. . . . -- New York Times Book Review
"Everyone who cares about contemporary American poetry should read Levis's posthumous Elegy; despite quite a bit of dead-pan humor and a recurring air of self-mockery, it's a heartbreaking book." -- Jacqueline Osherow in The Antioch Review (Winter 1999)
"Levis's lines are never burnished in the way that [Charles] Wright's can be, but Levis possessed the same near-perfect pitch, and had reached a similar level of free-verse mastery. ...the poems are never less than brilliant." -- David Wojahn in The Kenyon Review, Summer/Fall 1998
"Published after the author's death in 1996, this resonant collection captures the poet at his peak, offering jazz improvisations on a fragmented world." -- Fodder: News from the Hungry Mind
"The poems in Larry Levis' posthumous book, Elegy, are haunted, a weave of lyrical 'riffs,' plangent scenes, and demotic narratives. Levis hones his discursive style masterfully here, turning frequently to objective correlatives in order to complement the poems' intense emotions. . . ." -- Harvard Review
"There isn't a false word anywhere. It is poetry that you read silently to yourself, then read it over again and get up out of your chair to take over and read aloud to someone else so you can share the thoughts and the music and hear the sounds of the words out loud.... -- The Fresno Bee
Anastasia And The Sandman
Boy In Video Arcade
The Cook Grew Lost In His Village, The Village In The Endles
Elegy Ending In The Sound Of A Skipping Rope
Elegy For Poe With The Music Of A Carnival Inside It
Elegy For Whatever Had A Pattern In It
Elegy With A Bridle In Its Hand
Elegy With A Chimneysweep Falling Inside It
Elegy With A Petty Thief In The Rigging
Elegy With A Thimbleful Of Water In The Cage
Elegy With An Angel At Its Gate: 1. Muir In The Wilderness
Elegy With An Angel At Its Gate: 2. Bunny Mayo In The New
Elegy With An Angel At Its Gate: 3. Stevens
Elegy With An Angel At Its Gate: 4. Like The Scattered Beads
Elegy With The Sprawl Of A Wave Inside It
In 1967
The Oldest Living Thing In L.a.
Photograph: Migrant Worker, Parlier, California, 1967
The Poem Returning As An Invisible Wren To The World
Shiloh
The Smell Of The Sea
The Thief In The Painting
The Two Trees
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
