Hapax: Poems [Paperback]

A.E. Stallings (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2006

Hapax is ancient Greek for "once, once only, once and for all," and "onceness" pervades this second book of poems by American expatriate poet A. E. Stallings. Opening with the jolt of "Aftershocks," this book explores what does and does not survive its "gone moment"--childhood ("The Dollhouse"), ancient artifacts ("Implements from the Grave of the Poet"), a marriage's lost moments of happiness ("Lovejoy Street"). The poems also often compare the ancient world with the modern Greece where Stallings has lived for several years. Her musical lyrics cover a range of subjects from love and family to characters and themes derived from classical Greek sources ("Actaeon" and "Sisyphus").

Employing sonnets, couplets, blank verse, haiku, Sapphics, even a sequence of limericks, Stallings displays a seemingly effortless mastery of form. She makes these diverse forms seem new and relevant as modes for expressing intelligent thought as well as charged emotions and a sense of humor. The unique sensibility and linguistic freshness of her work has already marked her as an important, young poet coming into her own.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[O]ne of the strongest talents to emerge in recent years." --Poetry

"Stallings demonstrates formidable confidence in her technical skill, exploring fixed forms, tinking with traditions, and creating her own combinations of meter and rhyme. She also takes chances."  --Harvard Review

"A. E. Stallings is not a perfect poet but a poet of perfection, with the patience and courage to bring to her poems what American poetry so rarely knows how to give, and American readers hardly dare to receive; lapidary finish of both form and reading." --The Yale Review

About the Author

A. E. Stallings was born in 1968 and grew up in Decatur, GA. She studied classics at the University of Georgia and Oxford University. Her first poetry collection, Archaic Smile (University of Evansville Press, 1999) was awarded the 1999 Richard Wilbur Award. Her poetry has appeared in The Best American Poetry series (1994 & 2000) and has received numerous awards, including the 2004 Frederick Bock Prize from Poetry and the 2004 Nemerov Sonnet Award from the Formalist. She has recently completed a verse translation of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura for Penguin Classics. Stallings lives in Athens, Greece with her husband, John Psaropoulos, editor of the Athens News, and their son, Jason.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Triquarterly; 1 edition (March 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810151715
• ISBN-13: 978-0810151710
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Poems, April 28, 2006

By 

Jonathan Fries (Broomfield, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hapax: Poems (Paperback)

A.E. Stallings' poetry appeals first and foremost to the ear of the reader. It lands in the ear and travels to the heart and mind. This is not to say that intellectual or emotional force is a secondary consideration, only that these are the most wonderful sounding poems you are going to find from a contemporary writer.

This is, quite simply, the best book of poetry that I have read in a long, long time. Indeed, it is one of the best books of any kind.

If you read poetry regularly you should buy this book. If you don't, you should still buy it. Why? This is what all writing, poetry or otherwise, should aspire to be.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars totally rad, March 22, 2006

By 

George Oliver (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hapax: Poems (Paperback)

I've been waiting for a new collection by Stallings almost from the moment I finished reading her first book Archaic Smile. Clearly I've lost track of time, University of Evansville Press published Archaic Smile over five years ago, and I can remember buying that book at Open Books as if it was yesterday. For that matter I remember picking up the copy of Poetry in the temporary Central Library and reading 'The Dogdom of the Dead' for the first time. I must have re-read that poem twenty times standing there.

Anyway, enough about me, Hapax (and Archaic Smile) are must-haves. Hapax is 50 poems covering a wide range of subjects. The cover art is beautiful. I'm disappointed that it's paperback and not hardcover, but maybe that's an excuse to make a hardcover for it yourself. Stallings' poems are widely available online, just google her to check out some of her work if you haven't read it before.

Stallings studied classics (or is it Classics) and could be called, in fact is called in the Amazon.co.uk review, a master of form, but I feel her poems go beyond form, beyond refreshing form and making it relevant. Stallings has the skills, something to say, and is the real deal. Let me put it this way: Stallings kills it nearly every time, and if the U.S. government spent our billions on talented and masterful poets instead of guns and ammunition the world would be a better place and Stallings would be a millionaire. Perhaps that's a long-range plan. In the short term buy these books, you'll be glad you did.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Buried deeper, found someday, but not by you.", July 7, 2007

By 

Brady Kiesling (Athens, Greece) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hapax: Poems (Paperback)

The line above is a deadly epitaph from "Arrowhead Hunting" on page 13. Let it not be yours! Even if you despise poetry, buy Hapax now. At the very least it will pay your grandchildren's college tuition. Alicia Stallings uses her wicked gift for rhyme and rhythm, a classicist's store of beautiful words, and a deep, generous Southern sensibility to write universal poems. Every line harmonizes with something someone did or said 300 or 3000 years ago, and the result is ancient myths retold more vivid and moving than our own lives.