Garbage: A Poem [Paperback]

A. R. Ammons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2002

Winner of the National Book Award.

"A. R. Ammons's poem with the unforgettable title is a defense of meaning—'this,' the poet says, 'are awash in ideality.' Garbage is an epic of ideas: all life—not that of human beings alone, but every species—is shown to be part of an ultimate reality. Eternity is here and now. The argument ranges widely with a wealth of images taken from science, and the world around us, the writing by turns impassioned and witty. For power of the thought and language, the poem takes its place alongside Whitman's Song of Myself—an American classic."—Citation for the 1993 National Book Award for Poetry

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Garbage," A.R. Ammons writes in this book-length poem, "has to be the poem of our time because / garbage is spiritual, believable enough / to get our attention, getting in the way..." Talky and playful, the couplets of the National Book Award-winning Garbage propel one through the trash dump of 20th-century meaning, as well as into the past and future, where "millennia jiggle in your eyes at night." This project, by turns wryly self-deprecating and densely philosophical, places Ammons in the company of such recent epic funnymen as John Ashbery, Ronald Johnson, and, very self-consciously, William Carlos Williams. Like any good epic, the poem begins in doubt, with Ammons wondering whether to write the book or simply retire and live a life of leisure on Social Security (plus a surely ample pension from his longtime Cornell University professorship). Like John Milton in the preamble to his epic, Paradise Lost, Ammons uses the metaphor of a tree to focus his poetic ambition. "I mean," he writes, "take my yard maple--put out in the free / and open--has overgrown, its trunk / split down from a high fork ... The fat tree, unable to stop pouring it on, overfed and overgrew ... It just / goes to show you: moderation imposed is better / than no moderation at all." Indeed, the poem's 121 pages seem at times nothing more than an attempt to buoy the moment between two extremes: exuberant falsehoods at one end of the scale, cynical platitudes on the other. This "moderation" has served as Ammons' dominant aesthetic during his long poetic career, though Garbage's length and epic ambitions disrupt his trademark austerity. Despite his tangential questioning of reality and time, the poem's ultimate wisdom lies in how it imagines the actively good person, one who sees that

...life, life is like a poem: the moment it
begins, it begins to end: the tension this

establishes makes every move and movement, every
gap and stumble, every glide and rise significant

In a time when most poetry is about loss, Ammons wanders through our community junkyard and, with his good eye, points out what's valuable, and tells us, in his trustworthy tone, why. --Edward Skoog --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

This book-length poem is the second in Ammons's ( Sumerian Vistas ) prolific and distinguished career. In it, 18 sections of meditative free verse range through mortality, nature and our human place in it, as well as through the ordering circuits of poetry and art. At first Ammons declares, "This is a scientific poem," but he means that the reality of our lives and our work is attuned to the natural world in ways measurable and mysterious, as science is to him. Actual garbage, then, is only the starting point he spins away from and returns to in his musings. It is poetry itself that can cast a spell and prevent death: "I want to get / around to where I can say I'm glad I was here, / even if I must go." Sporadically, the writing here is very fine. Ammons is a master of the music inside the conversational; at times, his words take on the momentum of a fugue. But, as he himself reflects, the poet is occasionally unsure of his mission, goal, substance: "I can hardly think / or think of hardly a thing to say." Although Garbage may strike some as too long, in it Ammons sings pure notes among the others that sound less so.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393324117
• ISBN-13: 978-0393324112
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #537,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not garbage at all, November 26, 2000

By 

"elljay" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garbage: A Poem (Paperback)

"Garbage" is a lively book-length poem in 18 chapters about...uh, well, garbage. Actually, that's just a jumping-off point for a poem more concerned with philosophical issues than the here and now, which is fairly uncommon in this age of tinny free verse poems about pretty much nothing. Ammons' imagination takes him all over the map, from musings on the trials of being sixty-three years old with "an unaccomplished mission unaccomplished," to the possibility of personal immortality. Parts are a little obscure, but on the whole this is very readable, even funny at times. Ammons knows how to make philosophy entertaining; as he puts it, "Argument is like dining:/mess with a nice dinner long enough, it's garbage."

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book of Poetry!, November 20, 2005

By 

J. K. Smith (Martinsville, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Garbage: A Poem (Hardcover)

Garbage by A.R. Ammons reads--almost--like stream-of-consciousness writing, except that it really consists of well-structured, paired lines that take us,with the poet, on a journey through the junk that permeates not only our world but also our minds, hearts, and consciences. As an older reader (and English teacher for almost 30 years), I identify strongly with much that he says. And I like his unpretentious, but strong use of language. Ammons was a brilliant man with much insight. For those readers who say his book of poetry is junk, I invite them to take another look and read again each section. I am ordering this book today after borrowing a copy from a friend.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who could trash this???, December 30, 2002

By 

"meerschaum1" (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garbage: A Poem (Paperback)

I think it's fantastic that Norton has reissued Garbage. It and the earlier Tape for the Turn of the Year are great examples of how the long poem can still be a fun, engaging, page-turner of a genre. Ammons was a crackerjack writer and he is at his best in Garbage. It starts off with an audacious premise - that garbage is a worthy subject for epic poetry. But, the next thing you know, Ammons is making you a believer with his astounding lyricism and exuberance. He then turns his romanticized trash heap into a springboard for a engaging discussion of life, art and the question of what is permanent. Garbage is bursting at the seams with Ammons' wry humor, old-fashioned homespun wisdom and refreshingly self-deprecating honesty about the befuddlement of the human condition. A hoot to read!