Vain Empires (Poets, Penguin) [Paperback]

William Logan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1998 | Series: Poets, Penguin

Vanity corrupts the empires on the grand tour from ancient Rome to revolutionary Iran, from Europe in the Age of Reason to America in the Age of Television. The poems find Ovid in a London gentlemen's club, Romeo and Juliet in Florida, and the varnished splendors of religion and politics surviving at the seedy edge of culture. Logan is one of the rare poets who makes every poem matter. In its resonant vision, Vain Empires is a book breathtakingly intense in language, disturbing in its moral intelligence.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

William Logan is one of the most recognizable (and controversial) poetry critics of the 20th century. As a critic, Logan passionately adores (or abhors, depending on the poet) poetic language; as a poet, his extensive historical knowledge, unsentimental voice, and polished writing glisten like crystal. Vain Empires, his fourth collection of poetry, is reminiscent of some of his earlier books (Difficulty and Sullen Weedy Lakes), as he again tackles historical anecdote through detached, disillusioned eyes. But any poetry reader will appreciate Logan's talent of bending and twisting words into unique, astute sculptures: "Praise the narrow waters of religion / closed as a dolphin's mouth, or dauphin's skull." Much of this book contains the kind of verses worth savoring both for their sharp commentary as well as their refined lyrical forms. Note this line from "Tristes Tropiques": "Learning how to die / is finally just an art, / says the shopping mall / to the shopping cart." At times playful, at times pastoral, Logan's poems are always colored by his deep well of scholarly intellect, as especially visible in "The Secession of Science from Christian Europe," "Keats in India," and "The Death of Pliny the Elder." Though some readers may find him a bit too unwilling to share emotions beyond grouchy resignation, poems such as the humorous "Florida Pest Control" and the sweeter "A Version of Pastoral" strike a nice balance. --Karen Karleski

From Publishers Weekly

Displaying a magnificent range of topical and formal resources, Logan's fourth collection is a formidable, morally sophisticated accomplishment. Whether the subject is Renaissance witch hunts, Robert Boyle's pigeon or wartime practices in the Middle East, Logan's speakers display a controlled outrage at the atrocities committed in progress's wake: "The oranges swell within the Age of Reason," Logan writes, "New realms invent new torture, new anatomies/ that starve the paper from the settling ink,/ the fraught wealth turning butchery to science." When the time frame shifts to the present, and nostalgia does not pervade Logan's predominantly Floridian and English landscapes, they meet with urbane wit, as in "N.E. Seventh Street as the Pequod": "His white-finned Cadillac/ is difficult to steer./ Its patchwork paint suggests/ the brickwork of Vermeer." Historical dramatic monologues, including "Van Gogh in the Pulpit," "The Death of Pliny the Elder" and the majestic (and apocryphal) "Keats in India," allow us a glimpse at the power of individual grace. Following the tough-minded, authentically adventurous formalism of Sullen Weedy Lakes, which appeared a decade ago, this collection's once opulent, now crumbling edifices conceal the hope that our dabblings with empire might still teach us something.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140588949
• ISBN-13: 978-0140588941
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,784,895 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:

4.0 out of 5 stars William Logan, April 12, 2003

By 

"eweaver15" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vain Empires (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

Vain Empires is not quite as good as Logan's book Night Battle; nevertheless it is still excellent--stunning heightened language in the best modernist style; reading Logan is like reading a version of Geoffrey Hill that makes more immediate sense (not, of course, to denigrate the venerable Hill). Logan's accessibility combined with his craftmanship with rhythm--his song-poems are especially stunning--is gorgeous, and makes for very readable poems. Combined with his Keats-like disassociation of sensibility, Logan's depressed suburban vision makes for a very unique book of poems.

Comparisons by other reviewers to so-called 'academy verse' are completely wrong; they apparently have never been near an MFA program. I wish to God MFA programs produced poems with language as careful as this.

Also, the particular example below ('shopping cart') is not only out-of-context, but carefully selected from the worst poem in the book. I can't imagine what would motivate this kind of selective reviewing except for the fact that Logan, as a critic, tends to skewer other authors in print. This makes for a lot of personal animosity on the part of other writers, and--although its not really a fair argument to make--may be behind the strange responses below.

The oranges swell within the Age of Reason.
Across the rusted screen, pad by silk pad,
the gecko presses claim upon the eye,

black heart soaking through its papery skin...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars William Logan, April 11, 2003

By 

"eweaver15" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vain Empires (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

Vain Empires is not quite as good as Logan's book Night Battle; nevertheless it is still excellent--stunning heightened language in the best modernist style; reading Logan is like reading a version of Geoffrey Hill that makes more immediate sense (not, of course, to denigrate the venerable Hill). Logan's accessibility combined with his craftmanship with rhythm--his song-poems are especially stunning--is gorgeous, and makes for very readable poems. Combined with his Keats-like disassociation of sensibility, Logan's depressed suburban vision makes for a very unique book of poems.

Comparisons by other reviewers to so-called 'academy verse' are completely wrong; they apparently have never been near an MFA program. I wish to God MFA programs produced poems with language as careful as this.

Also, the particular example below ('shopping cart') is not only out-of-context, but carefully selected from the worst poem in the book. I can't imagine what would motivate this kind of selective reviewing except for the fact that Logan, as a critic, tends to skewer other authors in print. This makes for a lot of personal animosity on the part of other writers, and--although its not really a fair argument to make--may be behind the strange responses below.

The oranges swell within the Age of Reason.
Across the rusted screen, pad by silk pad,
the gecko presses claim upon the eye,

black heart soaking through its papery skin...

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sloppy, undisciplined, cloying and--- brilliant!, March 1, 2002

By 

Book Fan (Newark, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vain Empires (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

After years of agonizing near misses, the common man's poet, William Logan, finally discharges the poetic equivalent of "Springtime for Hitler." Logan's verse has always been remarkable for the simple rhymes, predictable structures, sloppy word choice and desperate, cloying neediness. This time, somehow, Logan turns all of those hideous tendencies into a hilariously comic satire on academic verse with a collection of mulch-pile ditties so lifelessly bombastic that it screams "I was born in an MFA workshop."

I laughed so hard as I read this book that I almost wet my pants. Logan has finally done something worthwhile with his life. Can the Broadway musical of "Vain Empires" be far behind?