From Library Journal
While his novels documented the Beat Generation and his essays (just published in three volumes by the University of Arkansas Press) went a long way toward explaining it, Holmes's poetry is hardly what you would expect from a central figure of that era. He is more the artisan, working within tradition, and while he eventually frees his line from meter and rhyme, this freedom is late in coming and seemingly reluctant. In a poem for Robert Lowell, Holmes declares, "This is an age of elegy," and indeed his elegies are among his best poems. Other poems focus on those who stand small but strong-willed in the face of such Goliaths as age, frailty, and the state. Moving from the rich Ozark Mountains to his quiet home in New England, Holmes affirms lives and celebrates living.
- Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
A Bad Turn
Berryman's Dead
Chinese Poets
Cold Winter
Death Drag (the Elegist)
Decline Of The West
Dire Coasts
Doctor Trustus: Man Of Good Will
Dying Lawrence
Fayetteville Dawn: 1
Fayetteville Dawn: 2
Fear In The Afternoon
For Walker Evans
Instructions For The World Librarian
Lawrence In Taos
Les Italiennes
The Memoirs Of An Imaginary Man
Midnight Oil
Mouth
Night Music
Northfork October Return
Obituary For Jan Masaryk
The Old Saybrook House
Out Of A Fever: For Robert Lowell (sept. 13, 1977)
Petition Concerning The Death-wish
Premonitory July
Sade On Calvary
Samoan Head
Statements In A Personal Winter
Storm In The Ozarks
The Survivors
The Suzy Q
Sweet Charity
Too Late Words To My Father
Unwanted 1943 Chappaqua Flashback
Vignette
The Vocation
Watching Morning In
Weekend Away
Woman In A.m.
Year's End
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
Berryman's Dead
Chinese Poets
Cold Winter
Death Drag (the Elegist)
Decline Of The West
Dire Coasts
Doctor Trustus: Man Of Good Will
Dying Lawrence
Fayetteville Dawn: 1
Fayetteville Dawn: 2
Fear In The Afternoon
For Walker Evans
Instructions For The World Librarian
Lawrence In Taos
Les Italiennes
The Memoirs Of An Imaginary Man
Midnight Oil
Mouth
Night Music
Northfork October Return
Obituary For Jan Masaryk
The Old Saybrook House
Out Of A Fever: For Robert Lowell (sept. 13, 1977)
Petition Concerning The Death-wish
Premonitory July
Sade On Calvary
Samoan Head
Statements In A Personal Winter
Storm In The Ozarks
The Survivors
The Suzy Q
Sweet Charity
Too Late Words To My Father
Unwanted 1943 Chappaqua Flashback
Vignette
The Vocation
Watching Morning In
Weekend Away
Woman In A.m.
Year's End
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
