The Morning of the Red Admirals [Hardcover]

Robert Dana (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2004

Poetry. "In this, his tenth collection of poems, Robert Dana surprises, delights, and may even momentarily confound his readers with this ambitious book which is, above all, a work of transformations"- Richard Holinger. "[Dana's] clarity of vision and economy of means enact an exuberant encounter with the world; his vivid reading of his walk in the sun - 'Alive on the breath-edge of metaphor'- is at once bracing and wise. Robert Dana is a magnificent poet"- Christopher Merrill. Dana is the author of SUMMER and HELLO STRANGER (Anhinga Press) both available from SPD.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Dana was born in Boston in 1929. After serving in the South Pacific at the end of World War II, he moved to Iowa where he attended Drake University and The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. His poetry has won several awards, including two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and The Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award from New York University. Retired from teaching after forty years as Poet-in-Residence at Cornell College, he served as Distinguished Visiting Writer at Stockholm University and at several American colleges and universities. Dana was named Poet Laureate for the state of Iowa. He passed away in 2010.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 92 pages
• Publisher: Anhinga Press (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 093807878X
• ISBN-13: 978-0938078784
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,506,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Light from a butterflies wings, January 10, 2005

By 

Gary Sprandel (Frankfort, Kentucky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Morning of the Red Admirals (Paperback)

There are some nice images and common threads throughout these poems. The image of the Red Admiral butterfly flutters through, starting with the titled poem, through the reflections/essays "In Panama" and in the section on ten thousand wing beats. There are occasional church references, as the "Church of the Last years fallen leaves" the "Church of Doubting Thomas", a synod of crows, and a light redeeming the woods. Light and illumination also bends across the poems with a "silver hour", or days in November "the color and heft of lead", and the "bendable light" of the poem Koan. Dana takes risks with the poems, as he tries to "push past himself" into different styles of thought. The final section of the book marks his departure, perhaps emulating the red admiral butterfly, constantly improvising its strokes. Many of these newer poems work but some seem "confounding" as the cover jacket states.