Frame Structures: Early Poems 1974-1979 (New Directions Paperback, 822) [Paperback]

Susan Howe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 1996 | Series: New Directions Paperback, 822

In Frame Structures, Susan Howe brings together those of her early poems she wishes to remain in print, and in the forms in which she cares to have them last.

Gathered here are versions of Hinge Picture (1974), Chanting at the Crystal Sea 91975), Cabbage Gardens (1979), and Secret History of the Dividing Line (1978) that differ in some respects from their original small-press editions. In a long preface, "Frame Structures," written especially for this volume, Howe suggests the autobiographical, familial, literary, and historical motifs that suffuse these early works. Taken together, the preface and poems reflect her rediscovered sense of her own beginnings as a poet, her movement from the visual arts into the iconography of the written word.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This eagerly awaited edition brings back into print four of five long-poem chapbooks with which Howe moved from the visual arts into poetry. The interplay is readily apparent. Howe compresses her lines into "fields" of text, where rhymes and the ghost of the pentameter convincingly illustrate her preoccupation: how history lives through us, and vice versa, as we become "a pure past that returns to itself unattackable in the framework" of a poem. Though the details of her part-Anglo patrician, part-Irish immigrant heritage discussed in the long preface may seem like pedigree posturing, we slowly realize that for her, every historical figure is fascinating as a "cinder of the lexical drift," a person who now lives only through our reading of them. The genius of poems like "Hinge Picture," entering the terror and eros that created the Bible, and "Secret History of the Dividing Line," which explores the beginnings of exile and nationhood, is in the impulsive and authentic voices (unlike those of Pound's Cantos) given these generative speakers. No nostalgia, wonder or prefab interpretations cloud the immediacy or exquisite lyricism of the better works here. We are struck by "the war-whoop in each dusty narrative."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

365 Boys %clothed In Scarlet
Accessible Passes Roman Forest Craggy
Ancient Of Days
And This Is The Fruit Of Your Labor
Antiphon %versicle %&prayer
Audacity Of Favorite Children
Blind Black Night
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 1
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 10
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 11
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 12
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 13
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 14
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 15
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 16
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 17
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 18
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 19
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 2
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 20
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 21
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 22
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 23
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 3
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 4
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 5
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 6
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 7
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 8
Chanting At The Crystal Sea: 9
Children I Cried %my Words Fluttered Down
Claim Cloud Cut In Two By Sharpness
Clarions From The Keep Two Ship
Clinging -- To -- The %altar -- Pillars -- He
Closed Fist Withholding An Open Palm
Corner To Corner
Count Him A Magician
Dare I Hint At That Worse Time When, Strung Together
Dear Parents %a Thousand Lovely Thoughtgs This Sunny Morn
Dear Parents %i Am Writing By Candlelight
Dear Parents %i Am Writing By Candlelight
Dinner Somewhere
Divorce I Manussion Round
Each %floor %had % One
Emperor %s Body U
The Enemy Coming On Roads
Exiles Wander %and Return From Fiction Of Falsehood
Far -- Off -- In -- The -- Dread
The First English Child Born In New England Was Named Pere
Five -- Princes %buried -- Their
Flank Parties Advanced.
Forbad %e Cohabit
Frequently Palace Superstition
The Gate Of Reuben
A Gen %tle A
Green -- Chaste -- Gaiety -- Purety -- Sh -- Inca
Hearing Our Oars Where Their Freed Goatsteps Sped
Herod -- Fever -- Itchin %g -- Skin -- Pain -- Inflam
Hierarchy, Hierarchy!
Homeless Tribe %a Green-bellied Sea
The Horizon
The Hounds Of %the Huntsman Of
How Clearly This -- And They
I Knew What War Was
I The Fly
In Com %plete Armor
In Its First Dumb Form
Invisible Angel Confined
Island Of The Fierce Beast
Joseph Dreamt
A King
The Last First People
Leahisweddedtomeinthenight
Life La %nd Friend
Light Of Our Dark Is The Fruit Of My Womb
Lived Promiscuous!
Magi -- To -- The -- Rising -- Sun
A Man %whose Only Clothing Was His Hair
Mark -- Mar -- Ha -- Forest -- 1 -- A -- Boundry -- Manic
Morning
Night -- And -- The -- Perpetrator
Nothing Else Exists Or Nothing Exists
Numerous Singularities
O %where -- Ere %he -- He -- A
Oarsman, Oarsman
Our Law %vocables %of Shape Or Sound
The Past %will Overtake
The Perfectibilitarians Were Wrong
Place Of Importance As In The Old Days
Prayers %run Through Out Laws
Progeny Envisages Progeny
Refuge The Moment Serene
Remembered A Fragment Of The King's Face
Secret History Of The Dividing Line
Set Out To Learn What Fear Was
Sh -- Dispel -- Iris -- Sh -- Snow -- Sward -- Wide -- Ha
She Rises While It Is Still Dark, To Trace A Military
Silkworm -- Peacock -- Salamander
Sing -- To -- Yahweh -- For -- He
Spheres Of Popes Marked Ramparts
A Stark %quake
Stepping Carefully And Cautiously
Swiftness Divination These False Gods
Thorn, Thistle, Apron Leaf
Voices Of Children
Water Captive %valley In The Shadow Of My Hand
We Enter The Ancient Town Of Swords, Consisting Of A Long
What's In A Lake?
Who %whitewashed Epoch
Wild And Tame %are Born
A Woman Whose Breasts
Worn Out Man
Zingis Filled %nine Sacks
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

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Product Details

• Paperback: 122 pages
• Publisher: New Directions (June 17, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811213226
• ISBN-13: 978-0811213226
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond compare, April 19, 2001

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Robert E. Lloyd (Deerfield Beach, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frame Structures: Early Poems 1974-1979 (New Directions Paperback, 822) (Paperback)

Although this volume contains her earlier works, Frame Structures is supplemented by a more recent essay that provides a wealth of information about her personal life, and in doing so enriches the poems within. Those unfamiliar with Susan Howe's work may find this to be a good introduction. Her unsurpassed ability to combine prose and poetry make this a delight for the eyes. What we see is a constancy of purpose, a dazzling command of language, and an impressive storytelling ability.