Everything Else in the World: Poems [Hardcover]

Stephen Dunn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 2006

"One of our indispensable poets."—Miami Herald

In his fourteenth collection of poems, Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Dunn reveals his concerns, ranging from meditations on salvation and time to the difficulties and pleasures of loving in this "already brutal century." In language that Gerald Stern has called "unbearably fearless and beautiful," Dunn continues to probe the elusive in the lives we live.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite the sweeping title, Dunn's 14th collection stays close to home and true to form, engaging his personal history and ideas with straightforward intelligence, simple language and dry humor. The danger in these poems—lawlessness, heartbreak, violence—is mostly at the margins, in the past, read about or amusingly harmless, as when a tornado takes a barn but leaves the house and its poker chips so the game can continue. Exploring and explicating previous states of mind is one of Dunn's central concerns, often with the knowledge that nothing can "undo what's been done." Of an adulterer whose marriage sours, he asks the reader, "Can you say you're not envious... ?" When there's not enough wit or surprise, Dunn's abstractions and plain tone weigh down his lines. Elsewhere, however, he achieves a "quieter music" that accompanies the realization that "you've only just begun / to know how you feel." (Sept.)
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About the Author

Stephen Dunn won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry collection Different Hours. He lives in Frostburg, Maryland.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton (September 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393062392
• ISBN-13: 978-0393062397
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,019,068 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars poems rooted in common soil, November 25, 2006

By 

Mr. Richard K. Weems "emperor_weems" (Fair Lawn, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everything Else in the World: Poems (Hardcover)

Over time, Stephen Dunn has dared to tackle the intangible as well as the concrete. This is in addition to the multitudinous sides of human existence he has always explored. Dunn does not reveal what we want to know about ourselves, but what we need to know. Just like in _Riffs & Reciprocities_, where opposites found similarities and agreement and common bonds within each other, so do the explorations of this fine poet in this collection touch upon not only the light and dark, but the softly illuminated as well. From taking on the challenge of explicating the adulterer to the point of empathy and maybe unwilling agreement with the reader, to the wisdom of self that comes through the revealing of dark family secrets, Dunn rubs the tarnish off of hidden heirlooms that may still never make their way out to the mantle to be proudly displayed, but will make themselves a little more relevant to your daily chores. Dunn is someone to read a little more of every morning to make help make your day a little more meaningful.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emptiness, April 20, 2007

By 

Sanjeev Naik (US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everything Else in the World: Poems (Hardcover)

Still enjoying the book...have read the first half of the book in one sitting and the mundaneness of life (having to go to work) has forced me to delay reading the rest...

ANyone who can write like this ...is a genius!

EMPTINESS

I've learned mine can't be filled,
only alchemized. Many times
it's become a paragraph or a page.
But usually I've hidden it,
not knowing until too late
how enormous it grows in its dark.

...

4.0 out of 5 stars Emotional Contemplation, November 20, 2011

By 

Ann B. Keller "Ann B. Keller" (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everything Else in the World: Poems (Paperback)

This small book by Pulitzer Prize winner, Stephen Dunn, was a very quick and enjoyable read. Mr. Dunn sums up some of our ordinary thoughts and feelings in the poems Lucky and The Lost Thing. In Replicas, Mr. Dunn provides insight into the masks that many people wear to cocktail parties where appearances can be very deceiving.

The poem Signs illustrates some of the ridiculous connotations in some of our traditional signage, such as Slow Children and Falling Rock Zone. In his words are the memory of a kiss, the aura of the aftermath of making love and Mr. Dunn's attempt to memorialize time. These are all moments that we share in common, just like everything and everyone else in the world. It is in our sense of commonality that we identify with these simple portraits preserved for all time by the written word.