New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001 celebrates the exceptional career of Czeslaw Milosz, from his first work, written when he was twenty, to his newest poems, published for the first time in English in this volume.Widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of our time, Czeslaw Milosz is a master of probing inquiry and graceful expression. From his early poems, in which he declares, "I, a faithful son of the black earth, shall return to the black earth" ("Hymn"), to his newest work, in which he sees himself as a lofty, gray-headed spirit "Saved by his amazement, eternal and divine" ("For My Eighty-eighth Birthday"), Milosz's poetry is infused with a tireless spirit and penetrating insight into fundamental human dilemmas. In "Report," he arrives at the staggering yet simple truth that "to exist on the earth is beyond any power to name." in "Craftsman," he looks back over a life that was difficult to lead, but in the end he is nonetheless "Praising, renewing, healing. Grateful because the sun rose for you and will rise for others.""With its clarity, historical awareness and moral vision," writes Don Began in The Nation, Milosz's work proves that "poetry can define and address the concerns of an age." Milosz himself describes poetry as "the passionate pursuit of the Real," "a witness and participant in one of mankind's major transformations." A defector to France in 1951 after having lived under Communism and National Socialism in Eastern Europe, he brings to bear the political awareness of an exile -- most notably in A Treatise on Poetry, a sixty-page exploration of the world wars that rocked the first half of the twentieth century. His newer poems, such as "Sarajevo," "Zdziechowski," and "On the Inequality of Men," also reflect the sharp political focus through which he continues to bear witness to the events that stir the world.Unflinching, outspoken, and unsentimental, Milosz digs among the rubble of the past, choosing from the bad as well as the good, forging a vision that encompasses pain as well as joy. His work is "one of the monumental splendors of poetry in our age" (Edward Hirsch, The New York Times Book Review). New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001 is an essential collection from one of the most important voices in contemporary poetry.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
"More clever than you, I learned my century, pretending I knew a method for forgetting pain." There are few superlatives left for Milosz's work, but this enormous volume, with its portentous valedictory feel, will have reviewers firing up their thesauri nationwide. Born in Lithuania 90 years ago, Milosz published his first volume in Poland at age 22 and, after leftist activity in the '30s (forced underground under Hitler), defected in 1951 while working for the Polish consulate in Paris. After emigrating to the U.S. in 1960 and settling in as a professor of Slavic languages and literature at Berkeley (whence his books continued to issue), Milosz won the Nobel Prize in 1980. More books of verse attempting to come to grips with the 20th century followed, and Milosz enjoys an enormous, and deserved, reputation here, well-served by Milosz and Robert Hass's many co-translations of the poems, which make up the bulk of the book. (Other translators include Robert Pinsky and Peter Dale Scott.) Worth the price of admission alone is a full collection's worth of new work, taken from the Polish volume To ("This" in English) published last year, and superior to 1998's very uneven Road-Side Dog. The odd rhyming hexameter of "A Run" is typical here, taking us on dreams of flying, and back, in the last stanza, to the present: "I'm unkindly greeted by this awakened state./ During the day, on my cane, asthmatic, I creep./ But the night sees me off at the traveler's gate,/ And there, as at the outset, the world is new and sweet." Through the many horrors chronicled in this book, that renewal is a perpetual promise.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
As complete a representation of the Nobel prize winner's work as you are likely to find.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Modern Sublime,
By Fritz Allhoff (A UC Philosophy Dept) - See all my reviews
This review is from: New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001 (Hardcover)
This collection of poetry is pure transcendence. I was amazed with the quality of these poems--how they were selected and arranged--as well as the translations (Hass). Were these poems actually written in a language other than English? It does not seem so here. I couldn't imagine even the slightest nuance or reverberation of langauge lost in this work.I highly recommend this volume. It seems more logical than previous Milosz collections, and the poems here make it clear that his Nobel Prize in Literature was well-deserved. Milosz is a prophet and soothsayer of the modern era. And with this collection, despite its price, each poem is economically precise and wise; there is no monetary value that could estimate the value of this superb collection. The most interesting aspect of this volume is recognizing familiar Milosz poems juxtaposed with his latest work (2000). His latest work has the depth of lived experience and a maturity of patient observation of the human condition. Its strength lies in its approach to elemental themes: growing older, mortality, the trials of love and war, the purity of faith's optimism. This book is a "must have."
51 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
After 9.11,
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This review is from: New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001 (Hardcover)
After September 11th, I, a formerly avid reader, could no longer read anything but news, dreadful news. A lifelong subscriber to the New Yorker, I picked up an issue which magically opened to a poem by Milosz. I think it was the first or second issue that followed the bombings.The poem provided one of those rare moments where one feels transformed by words, where life is worth living again because someone said something so beautifully that it was again worth it to continue on. I don't even know if Milosz wrote that poem specifically in response to what happened on September 11th; surely he saw greater horrors in Poland than we can even imagine. Yet ever since, his words have granted me peace, not only from the fear of annihilation through disaster, but from the ultimate annihilation of death. I also love that he's still writing at ninety. I love how, against all odds, he decided to fall the way of faith. I read one of his poems each night, like a prayer, like a song.
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Milosz and Shakespeare: Best Poets of all Time,
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This review is from: New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001 (Paperback)
Milosz's poetry has a kind of energy that makes you want to shout on a rooftop: read this book. Any poet of any stature writes poems that fail to rise to the level of masterpieces, but in this book of 750 pages they are few and far between. The translator deserves much credit for these poem read as if they were originally written in English.
I used to think that Paul Celan captured the horror of war torn Europe the best, but Milosz now wins the title. The first books of this collection are harrowing and wistful. The books written from California and France take a more metaphysical tone but never fail to be touching and humane. The most recent poems detailing growing old are often funny but always reminiscent of just how much he has paid for growing up during wartime. Shakespeare and Milosz had their fingers on the pulse of the human condition and have created poems that will truly last forever. I recommend this book even to people who do not normally read poetry. It has changed me--- for the better.
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