The Late Romances: Poems [Paperback]

Eric Pankey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 1999

Eros presides over the operatic spectacle of these poems, and Melancholia over their ravenous clarity. The tragic and comic dispute a border, a margin that divides death from resurrection, separation from reunion, renunciation from celebration, and the spirit from the body. The poems themselves are pilgrimages back and forth between Eden and this green world. This new collection more than confirms what David Baker in The Kenyon Review said in response to Pankey's last book: "He is outstanding among an emerging generation of talented and accomplished poets."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Someday he will learn to abandon/ The unsubtle harmonies/ But for now his hands reach for the chords/ He learned to hear long ago as music...." So Pankey describes himself in an exhilarating fourth book full of unashamed counterpoints and echoes. Stevens reverberates in both the syntax ("Bells. Then afterward, the quiet after bells" in "Santo Spirito") and the attitude (the excellent "The Pear As One Example" flirts with parody: "None of it the pear/ But the otherness that is the pear.") Pankey takes from Stevens and his tradition-in this poem and "Essay on a Lemon" and the brilliant ecphrasis "Melancholia" and others-the courage to argue, to skip from description to proposition, from solemnity to wordplay. Occasionally, the arguments turn into sermons, for Pankey is a religious poet, whose fervor and questioning also bring Hopkins to mind. When one of these poems fails, the fault lies usually with an ending less skeptical, more complacent or penitent, than what has gone before (e.g., "The seen-world,/ Unreflected in that glass, for this instant/ Is this. Is this, this, this, this, and this"). Except for the forceful, lovely "To Christ Our Lord," Pankey seems on more solid ground in the persona of an unbeliever, as in his cycle "Don Giovanni in Hell" or his series of poems in Prospero's voice. Even at his least suave, however, Pankey's boldness commands respect. It will be our good fortune if he chooses not to abandon those unsubtle harmonies.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

After A Quarrel In Fiesole
Approaching Accademia: A Nocturne
At The Wapsipinicon River
The Augury Of Prospero
August Fugue
A Basket Of Apricots
Beyond Alchemy
Borgo Antico
Bric-a-brac
Commedia
Confession On The Island
The Crow's Complaint
Detail From The Lamentation Over The Dead Christ
Details
Don Giovanni In Hell
The Dotage Of Prospero
Essays On A Lemon
A Feast In Jerusalem
Field Of Vision
Fire
For Now
The Grave Of A Woman
Homage
In Arcadia
In Heaven
In Siena, Prospero Reconsiders The Marriage At Cana
Interlude
June Vagaries
The Kingdom Likened To A Field Of Weeds
Lines In Memory Of My Father: Ponte Santa Trinita
Manifest Destiny
Melancholia
Nostalgia
The Pear As One Example
The Phrase Of Thine Actions
The Pilgrimage Of My Father's Ghost
Prayer
Prospero Returned From Exile
Prospero Stays Home From Church
Prospero Takes His Morfning Coffee With The Conspirators
Quartet
Santo Spirito
Savant Of Birdcalls
Study
Sworn Deposition
Testament
To Christ Our Lord
Tulip
Two Asides Beneath The New Moon
Two-part Invention
World Enough
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (January 26, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679766057
• ISBN-13: 978-0679766056
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,262,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Pankey is the author of eight collections of poetry. A ninth, Dissolve, is forthcoming from MIlkweed Editions in 2013.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of his best, May 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Late Romances: Poems (Hardcover)

Winner of the Walt Whitman Prize for his first book, Eric Pankey demonstartes with this, his fourth collection, that he is ceratinly a master. The poems in this collection are meditative, concerned with the "spiritual." There are times in this book when Pankey seems much like Charles Wright in his subject matter, but always there is Pankey at the helm. A beautiful book.//C. Dale Young, Associate Editor of NEW ENGLAND REVIEW