Customer Reviews

The Ends of the Earth: Essays

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W.S. Merwin is better known as a poet, but I for one appreciate his prose writing, both its content and its craftsmanship. THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a collection of eight essays, three somewhat lengthy (47 to 84 pages) and five shorter ones (9 to 26 pages).

The first in the collection, a warm and literate portrait of Merwin's close friend George Kirstein (for 13 years the owner and publisher of "The Nation"), stands by itself. The remaining seven essays are related in a subtle way. They deal with the monasteries of Mt. Athos, the desecration of the Hawaiian Islands, the winter sanctuaries in Mexico for migrating monarch butterflies, the circumnavigation voyages of Capt. James Cook (1768 to 1771) and Jean-Francois Galaup de La Pérouse (1786 to 1789(?)), and the remains of a Neanderthal discovered in 1908 near La Chapelle-aux-Saints in the Dordogne.

The settings or locales for these seven essays are exotic and far-flung, and in that sense they are "FROM the ends of the earth". But running through them is a strong and silent undercurrent, a theme of evanescence, extending from individual men, to cultures and systems of knowing and ways of life, to entire species. There even is, unvoiced, an apprehension that homo sapiens might precipitate "the end of the earth", at least as we know it as home.

Per usual for Merwin, the writing is excellent. These essays are not exciting and they certainly are not for everyone. But if you enjoy learned and literate essays on esoteric matters, meditative in nature, there is a good chance that you will enjoy THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.

The book consists of a series of essays by the poet W.S. Merwyn.

Some of the journeys herein are rambles, and you're not quite sure where Mr. Merwyn is headed. The last paragraph of each, however, ties it all together, and sends your mind a-reeling.

A most worthwhile read by a master!