In this extraordinary debut collection, David Hamilton revitalises and extends American pastoral writing with an uncanny ability to conjure memories of childhood and moments of spiritual and physical encounter. His gift lies in combining these themes of discovery with a lyrical intelligence never far from natural speech, all delivered with profound sensitivity for people, place and natural beauty.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Hamilton never practises self-absorption, let alone self-aggrandizement. A consistent philosophical stance emerges, wherein what is outside the self, what is Nature, is given precedence. He has still another side, though: a playful and oblique poet who will not refuse found poems. A deeper indicator of Hamilton's complex sensibility is his simultaneous interest in Old English poetry and Gertrude Stein. -- John Taylor Michigan Quarterly Review Whether the poet is grappling with love (or the loss of love), a friend's urge to die, man's very slight place in nature. "impermanence" (as he puts it), or the paradoxes of our unique tool for comprehending the world, language, he emphasizes the unanswerable questions that face us all. -- John Taylor Michigan Quarterly Review
About the Author
David Hamilton edits The Iowa Review and teaches English literature at the University of Iowa. With degrees from Amherst College (AB) and the University of Virginia (PhD), he taught in Colombia and at the University of Michigan before taking his present position. The University of Missouri Press published his Deep River (2001), a memoir embedded in local history reaching far into the archaeological record. In 1992, he was a Fulbright Professor in Valencia, Spain.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A varied and beautiful collection,
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This review is from: Ossabaw (Salt Modern Poets Series) (Paperback)
David Hamilton, memoirist, essayist, master of beautiful sentences, is an elegant poet. He is wide awake in these poems that range and play between lyricism ("Lovesong from the Marshes"), poetic memoir (the delightful "Not at All Byzantine") , Gertrude Stein-isms ("Slender Batons") , ekphrastics ("The Blue He Seized," "Van Gogh Dropped"). There are scenes from his childhood Missouri farm, his passions for old English, Spain, family history, the pull of erotic memory. "Beige and Avocado" is a gorgeous and sad narrative, all the more affecting for the other memories of adolescence dotted here and there. The long title poem uses fragmented lyric to recreate the visceral experience of Ossabaw, a nature preserve off the coast of Georgia. One of the great pleasures of this book is the quiet appearance of birds, the view of a dogwood, early trillium, Hamilton's affinity for the natural world. Another is his humanity and easy wit. I loved this voice telling this life.
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