Stake: Poems, 1972-1992 [Hardcover]

Alfred Corn (Author, Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1999

Written over a twenty-year period and selected by the author, these poems are the indispensable record of wide-ranging explorations of experience and of language. Brought together, they draw in bold, clear lines the profile of a central figure in contemporary poetry.. Alfred Corn draws with extraordinary skill on narrative, figurative, and metrical resources to frame challenging contemporary issues, autobiographical themes, and vivid observations of both the extraordinary and the everyday. Reflecting on subjects ranging from the comic to the classical, Corns poetry is musical, meditative, passionate, and direct.These poems were gathered from six of Corns previous collections: All Roads at Once (1976), A Call in the Midst of the Crowd (1978), The Various Light (1980), Notes from a Child of Paradise (1984), The West Door (1988), and Autobiographies (1992).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For accomplished formalist Corn, writing has always been inextricable from autobiography, and this collection lets us survey the long-term results of these often mutually antagonistic obsessions. Like James Merrill and Richard Howard, Corn, who is also an art critic, frequently reflects on a life of travel at home and abroad, lingering among intellectual haunts, domestic comforts as well as exotic pleasures. His intellectualism makes offering fresh views on weathered scenes a constant pressure; in an excerpt from the book-length Notes from a Child of Paradise, for example, a trip to the Grand Canyon strands the poet in the third-person plural, "staggered, trying then also/ To find words that would fall in love with what they saw." But self-consciousness is not enough to make some of these stories matter: the volume's finale, selections from the long poem "1992" (a series of two-part "on-the-road" tales the poet calls "the content of the world that is my case") embodies the shortcomings of his methods: its personal anecdotes of cross-country trips, alternated with snapshots of imagined lives of ordinary people (a waitress at a touristy diner in Tampa, for example), more easily generate sentiment than sympathy or insight: "Trees rushing by,/ a sinking sun caught in them. Wordlessness,/ more than anything else, was how we communicated." In many earlier poems, however, particularly on New England and New York, the poet responds to his surroundings with eccentricity and courage, and without the predictability of much of the later work. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

1992: 1. 1949
1992: 13. 1989
1992: 14. 1990
1992: 15. 1971
1992: 19. 1989
1992: 2. 1971
1992: 20. 1992
1992: 8. 1974
1992: 9. 1989
The Adversary
Assistances
At The Grave Of Wallace Stevens
Audience
The Band
The Bridge, Palm Sunday, 1973
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: April
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: April. Billie's Blues
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: April. Impression
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: April. Spring And Summer
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: April. Two Parks
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: April. Water: City Wildlife ...
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: January
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: January. By Firelight
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: January. Midnight Walk
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: January. Nine To Five
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: January. Some New Ruins
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: January. Tokyo West
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: July. Bike Ride
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: July. Birthday Lunch, August 14
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: July. City Island, Pelham Bay Park
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: July. Declaration, July 4
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: July. Fire: The People
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: July. Summer Vertigo
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: July. Sunday Mornings In Harlem
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: October. Afternoon
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: October. Air: The Spirit
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: October. Another Year
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: October. Fifty-seventh St. And Fifth
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: October. Orlando Furioso .. Puppet
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: October. Photographs Of Old New York
A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd: October. Short Story, A Covenant
The Candlelight Burglary
Cannot Be A Tourist
Chinese Porcelains At The Metropolitan
Contemporary Culture And The Letter K
Cornwall
Darkening Hotel Room
The Documentary On Brazil
Dreambooks
Dublin, The Liberties
In The Midst Of The Crowd; Sels. Earth: Stone, Brick, Metal
The Jaunt
La Madeleine
Maine Real Estate
Moving: New York -- New Haven Line
My Neighbor, The Distinguished Count
Naskeag
New Year
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: I : 1
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: I : 14
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: I : 19
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: I : 2
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: I : 21
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: I : 3
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Ii : 1
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Ii : 12
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Ii : 14
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Ii : 16
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Ii : 25
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Ii : 26
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Ii : 27
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Ii : 28
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Ii : 33
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Ii : 4
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Ii : 7
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 13
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 14
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 16
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 17
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 20
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 21
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 22
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 25
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 27
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 31
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 4
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 6
Notes From A Child Of Paradise: Iii : 7
On The Beach
One To One
An Oregon Journal
The Outdoor Amphitheater
Pages Form A Voyage: 3. A Separation
Pages From A Voyage
Pages From A Voyage: 2. Mortefontaine
Pages From A Voyage: 4. To A Friend, From A Landing
Pages From A Voyage: 5
Pages From A Voyage: 6
Pages From A Voyage: 7. A Forestate
Pages From A Voyage: 8
Pages From A Voyage: 9
Prime Minister In Retirement
Promised Land Valley, June '73
Stephen Dedalus: Self-portrait As A Young Man
Tanagra
The Three Times
Two Places In New England
A Village Walk Under Snow
Welcome To Farewell
An Xmas Murder
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint Press (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582430241
• ISBN-13: 978-1582430249
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,459,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent! stake your claim now!, March 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Stake: Poems, 1972-1992 (Hardcover)

Lovers of poetry, give your ear to Alfred Corn! Collected here is the cream of his poetry, and whether you favor the silkiness of Corn's language or the way he almost stalks his subject matter through the stanzas, you'll be impressed by the kernals of wisdom contained in each piece. If you get to hear Alfred (known as "Pop" to his friends) read his own poetry, you won't be disappointed. His husky voice lends an aura of authenticity to the work, and he's usually happy to field questions after the reading.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stake, February 20, 2000

By 

Doretta Wildes (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stake: Poems, 1972-1992 (Hardcover)

A great poet, in my opinion, offers what anyone might recognize as beauty and truth. In Mr. Corn's poems, I have found prized gemstones for everyday use. What I enjoy most about his work is that he presents his stories and still lifes with equal skill, achieving that rare balance between a keen eye and a trained ear. Many of his poems are like those small and perfect clementines which, when you take them apart, delight you with each equally perfect segment - any one of his lines can stand on its own feet. Yet, Mr. Corn moves beyond his aesthetic achievements to reveal motifs in the places he has lived in and visited / people he has lived with and visited. His is such a reliable and refreshing sensibility that I am always hopeful he will shine it on new subjects, larger or smaller, and over the years, I have been grateful for his range. There is virtue in Corn's circumspect and gentle approach to his subjects, but never sanctimony or cant. If you want archness, bitterness, idiosyncrasy or obsession, best to leave Corn's collection on the shelf. But if you want wisdom acquired through patient practice, begin on page 1. You will find what good readers expect of poetry but seldom receive in such rich shares.