A Muriel Rukeyser Reader gathers a generous selection of poetry and prose spanning the forty-five years of Rukeyser's writing life.
Bringing together works only sparsely anthologized or long out of print, this book is a resource for understanding the range, depth, and originality of this pioneering writer whom the poet Anne Sexton named "Muriel, mother of everyone."
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It's easy to see from this collection, which spans 1935-76, why many regarded elements of Rukeyser's work as beyond or before her time. By combining and recombining images of political leaders, body memory, physicists, sexuality, and more, the poet created a personal dreamscape, a cinema verit{‚}e full of jump cuts intersplicing poets, painters, and philosophers that presaged the age of MTV and poetry videos. Underpinning the densely worked surfaces, however, are the poet's recurrent musings on how and why we live, our relationships to ourselves, our physical bodies, the laws of gravity, the nature of fear, and the evolution of the poetic image. In "Letter to the Front" (from Beast in View, 1944), Rukeyser encapsulates her view of life as a woman, a Jew, and an artist: "The gift is torment. Not alone the still / Torture, isolation; or torture of the flesh. / That may come also. But the accepting wish, / The whole and fertile spirit as guarantee / For every human freedom, suffering to be free, / Daring to live for the impossible." She constantly reminds us, "Exchange is creation." Whitney Scott
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
One of the most important poets of our time. . . . Her originality, her genius, her courage illuminate our century. (Sharon Olds )
A visionary poet . . . Muriel Rukeyser speaks to us today in the name of courage, full consciousness, and the making of connections. This is a life-giving collection. (Jane Cooper )
A visionary poet . . . Muriel Rukeyser speaks to us today in the name of courage, full consciousness, and the making of connections. This is a life-giving collection. (Jane Cooper )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gem,
This review is from: A Muriel Rukeyser Reader (Paperback)
A thinker's book. Wonderful to read Rukeyser wrestle with and explain life, art, thought. She is by turns poet, biographer, essayist and character. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Her art and criticism explore the same themes. The effect is surprisingly consistent in a book comprised of several incomplete selections. If you have any doubts, find a poem or two of hers and try it on for size (Gauley Bridge, for example). If you're fascinated, try this volume. Here's a sample. Rukeyser on poetry (from The Life of Poetry): "A first-rate scientist, or a fine prose writer, is able to say, 'How can I know a good poem? I can tell an honest piece of work in my own field from a phony piece of work, but how can I tell a fine poem from a phony poem? And what has to be said to such a question is that these are people who cannot trust their emotional reactions, their total reactions."
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Muriel Rukeyser Reader (Hardcover)
Muriel Rukeyser was certainly a terrific and fascinating poet. These are strange and striking creations, and originality is present on every page. I don't know how she got stuck with Adrienne Rich as her introducer, but one may skip that and go on to a memorable experience. Rukeyser was a true original.
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