The Rain in the Trees [Paperback]

W.S. Merwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 1988

A literary event -- a new volume of poems by one of the masters of modern poetry -- The Rain in the Trees is W. S. Merwin's first book since the publication five years ago of his Opening the Hand.

Almost no other poet of our time has been able to voice in so subtle a fashion such a profound series of comments on the passing of history over the contemporary scene. To do this, he seems to have reinvented the poem -- so that the experience of reading Merwin is unlike the reading of any other poetry. In such famous books as The Lice, The Moving Target and (most recently) Opening the Hand, he has produced a body of work of great profundity and power made from the simplest and most beautiful poetic speech.

The poems in this new book are concerned with intimacy and wholeness, and are made of the relations with people, with places, past and present, and with history and how the world endures it.

Merwin can now rightfully be called a master, and this book shows in every way why this is the case.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The sounds of wind and rain and the images of trees and pastures form melancholy leitmotifs in the latest volume of lyrics by this master prosodist. All slight and understated, these poems depend on nuance and the emotional color of Merwin's mellifluous language for their effect. They ask one to imagine a world not patently given here, but only suggested by sudden, fleeting illuminations: they comprise "a kind of whispered sighing/ not far/ like a night wind in pines or like the sea in the dark/ the echo of everything that has ever/ been spoken/ still spinning its one syllable/ between the earth and silence." The love poems in particular are so elusive and wispy they seem hardly to stand alone, but to need each other as a group, as well as a good deal of imaginative participation on the part of the reader. Similarly, his theme of the loss of the archaic earthly Eden through the march of progress is defined by only the vaguest mythical outline. Yet, however muted and minor this collection, one is entranced as ever by the unparalleled discipline of Merwin's silver tongue.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Five years after his last collection, Pulitzer Prize-winner Merwin offers no surprises, just the same steady hand and vision we have come to expect from one of the giants of contemporary American poetry. Mostly short lyrics, with unnamed landscapes, unidentified personas, and a gloss of surrealism, these poems exemplify the style Merwin has mastered over the past 35 years: "On the last day of the world/ I would want to plant a tree/ . . . I want a tree that stands/ in the earth for the first time." Yet his rendering of contemporary scenes is also effective. There has been so much good Merwin over the last three decades that publication of his Selected Poems due this summerwill surely be a literary event. Until then, this new work will keep us. Thom Tammaro, Moorhead Univ., Moorhead, Minn.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (March 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394758587
• ISBN-13: 978-0394758589
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 0.2 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #304,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

W.S. Merwin is the 17th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry of the United States. He is the author of over fifty books of poetry, prose, and translations. He has earned every major literary prize, most recently the National Book Award for 'Migration: New and Selected Poems' and the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for 'The Shadow of Sirius.' He lives in Hawaii where he raises endangered palm trees.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entrancing, March 28, 1999

By 

Paul Alan Cox ([e-mail]) (Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rain in the Trees (Paperback)

W. S. Merwin is clearly a major figure in American poetry. His work, emphasizing nature, memory, plants, the forest, is thought-provoking, insightful, and delightful. If you buy only one book of poetry this year, buy this one. Everyone we have shared the book with has become absolutely enchanted- a true masterpiece.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars W.S. Merwin, October 22, 2006

By 

W. Davis (Richmond, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rain in the Trees (Paperback)

Images of nature no where nearly cover the symbolism Merwin's poems have. Figurative phrases can be found through out. The mind longs to read them again in their extended absence.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book, September 11, 2011

By 

Daniel McGinn (Los Angeles, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rain in the Trees (Paperback)

This is my third copy of this volume of poetry. This is my favorite book by Merwin. "The Rain in the Trees" is quiet mystical poetry. It has a pulse, it breathes.