The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems [Hardcover]

Marilyn Nelson Waniek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997

In The Fields of Praise, Marilyn Nelson claims as subjects the life of the spirit, the vicissitudes of love, and the African American experience and arranges them as white pebbles marking our common journey toward a "monstrous love / that wants to make the world right." Nelson is a poet of stunning power, able to bring alive the most rarified and subtle of experiences. A slave destined to become a minister preaches sermons of heartrending eloquence and wisdom to a mule. An old woman scrubbing over a washtub receives a personal revelation of what Emancipation means: "So this is freedom: the peace of hours like these." Memories of the heroism of the Tuskegee Airmen in the face of aerial combat abroad and virulent racism at home bring a speaker to the sudden awareness of herself as the daughter "of a thousand proud fathers."

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Abba Jacob And Miracles
Abba Jacob And St. Francis
Abba Jacob And The Angel
Abba Jacob And The Businessman
Abba Jacob And The Theologian
Abba Jacob At Bat
Abba Jacob Gets Down
Abba Jacob In The Well
Abba Jacob's Seven Devils
Aches And Pains
Ape-gods
April Rape
Armed Men
As Simple As That
At Prayer
Aunt Annie's Prayer
Balance
Bali Hai Calls Mama
The Ballad Of Aunt Geneva
Beauty Shoppe
Blessing The Boats
Boys In The Park
A Canticle For Abba Jacob
The Century Quilt
Chopin
Chosen
Churchgoing
Clown Nose
Confessional Poem
Cover Photograph
The Dangerous Carnival
Daughters, 1900
The Death Of Polyxena
Dinosaur Spring
Diverne's House
Diverne's Waltz
Don't Throw Out Wine Bottles
The Dream's Wisdom
Dusting
Emily Dickinson's Defunct
Epithalamium And Shivaree
Fish And Floor-dust Bouquet
For Mary, Fourth Month
The Fortunate Spill
Freeman Field
Hecuba Mourns
High And Haughty
The House On Moscow Street
How I Discovered Poetry
Hurrah, Hurrah
I Am You Again
I Decide Not To Have Children
I Dream The Book Of Jonah
I Imagine Driving Across Country
I Knew That
I Send Mama Home
Impala
Is She Okay?
It's All In Your Head
Juneteenth
La Peste
Laughter As The Highest Form Of Contemplation
Leaving The Hospice
Letter To A Benedictine Monk
Levitation With Baby
The Life Of A Saint
Light Under The Door
Like Father, Like Son
Lonely Eagles
The Lost Daughter
Lovesong
Mama I Remember
Mama's Murders
Mama's Promise
The Marriage Nightmare
May Your Love Convert Lucifer
May Your Love Convert Lucifer
Memento
Men In The Kitchen
Minor Miracle
My Grandfather Walks In The Woods
My Second Birth
No No, Bad Daddy
No Worst
Photographs Of The Medusa
The Plotinus Suite
Porter
Post-prandial Conversation
The Prayer Of Silence
Propositions
Psalm
Recurrent Dream
Rilke's Third Elegy
The Sacrament Of Poverty
The Simple Wisdom
Sisters
Star-fix
A Strange Beautiful Woman
Th Fruit Of Faith
Thus Far By Faith: 1. Sermon In The Cotton Field
Thus Far By Faith: 2. Sermon In The Woodlot
Thus Far By Faith: 3. Sermon In The Ruined Garden
Thus Far By Faith: 4. Meditation Over The Washtub
Thus Far By Faith: 5. Palm Sunday, 1866
Thus Far By Faith: 6. Good Friday Prayer
Thus Far By Faith: 7. Easter Sermon, 1866
To Market
Tuskegee Airfield
Twist The Thread
The War Of The Heart
Wild Pansies
Woman Kills And Eats Own Infant
Women's Locker Room
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Hardcover: 209 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr; 1st edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807121746
• ISBN-13: 978-0807121740
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,071,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Agony and the Ecstasy, April 23, 2000

By 

Robert A. McCandless (West Point, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems (Hardcover)

In The Fields of Praise, Marilyn Nelson brings her views to life in a series of well-constructed poems. Her poems cover a wide array of topics, to include racism, sexism, religion, motherhood, illicit sex, and poverty. The characters in her poems commit unimaginable crimes and achieve inconceivable feats. Indeed, Nelson's poems cover the entire human spectrum. Nelson writes in a deep, penetrating style. Skipping the nonsense that some writers embrace, she delves to the heart of the matter, analyzing and constantly questioning human motives. Indeed, Nelson is not afraid to confront the sickening evil that lurks within human nature and the events that unfold when the malevolence is unleashed. Her poems on pure, unadulterated evil reflect her fearless stance on describing, and in fact deploring the evil in human nature. Nelson offers an accurate, candid view of the events that unfold around her. On a lighter note, Nelson analyzes with extreme clarity the unconditional love a mother has for her child, and the unbridled purity of the natural world. Nelson celebrates the love and affection that is found within the souls of all human beings. Most of all, however, she analyzes the deep-rooted maternal instincts of mothers. In her poems, Nelson argues that the bond between a mother and her child is indestructible. In many of her works, Nelson describes the intense protectiveness of females toward their offspring. The Fields of Praise is an excellent collection of Nelson's poems that provides deep insight into the positive and negative aspects of human nature. Indeed, Nelson's knowledge and deep comprehension of human tendencies shines through in her works.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Love That Sex, April 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems (Hardcover)

Marilyn Nelson's book The Fields of Praise is an excellent collection of poetry that captures the deep-down curiosity of the reader. Most of her poems have a parental tone and reflect on her life experiences with her mother and with herself as a mother. Also, several selections deal with the deep down nature of humans and the reason for our actions, such as in "Propositions," where she asks the difficult question of where our sexual desires come from. As a religious person, one of my favorites is "Thus Far by Faith." It is about the faith that the oppressed African Americans had while they were held captive by slavery. It actually reached out to me and made me examine some parts of my life and realize that I was worried about nothing. One poem, "Rilke's Third Elegy" still baffles me. I had the privilege of listening to her recite some of her poems, and someone asked her to read this poem, which someone else wrote, but she included it in her book. When someone asked her about the meaning, she said "Well I think it is about masturbation," but I think she was joking. Marilyn Nelson does a good job of capturing the readers imagination and discusses life and decision making in depth. I enjoyed her book and would suggest it to any poetry lover.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Mother's Insight, May 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems (Hardcover)

Marilyn Neslon's The Fields of Praise is a book about motherhood. She is a refreshing turn from the sexually explicit yet uninterpretable poetry that pervades modern day poetry. The compassionate and romantic pieces in her book are generally directed towards children. Though her poems often express fear and concern, they are not exploding with the dark, depressing diction of utter despair that pervades current poetry. She brings the reader into the real world of a loving heart without beating the reader over the head with fraudulent fervor or suffocating the reader with meloncholy. As a mother hunts down and abolishes anything she feels will harm her family, Marilyn Nelson is quick to criticize perceived social ills. Some of her poetry takes on the appearance of criticism and denunciation and can even be interpreted to be bigoted. In many ways her poetry is of a right wing conservative nature as opposed to the liberal overtones that her contemporaries write with. It is always a pleasure to see someone who strays from the norm, however, her overall imagery and tone are not appropriate for effective social critique. Mrs. Nelson should continue to provide the audience with an attentive watch over her children, but she cannot be both the lobbyist and the mother.