Two Trees: Poems [Paperback]

Ellen Bryant Voigt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1994

In this fourth collection by Ellen Bryant Voigt, a sustained meditation examines the intersection where will and fate collide. Within the structure of the volume are three sets of musical "variations, each illuminating some aspect of the longer poems and fusing with the poet's brooding studies on beauty, art and the instability of perception.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This fourth collection of Voight's poetry is a mix of song and sigh, wisdom and simplicity, reminiscent of the work of both Frost and Bishop. Voigt ( Claiming Kin ) is fascinated by the dualities of childhood and adulthood, mortality and immortality, humanity's fall from grace and innocence and our constant struggle to impose a sense of order, perhaps in the attempt to recover Edenic bliss. Through the use of fugue-like "variations," Voight discloses and veils--at first setting the poem at a distance, harkening, then gradually manipulating imagery to produce a range of interpretation. This works superbly in "At the Piano" and "First Song," yet much less so in some other attempts. "Soft Cloud Passing" reveals Voigt's virtuosity, her mastery of rhythm and her gift for exquisitely depicting landscapes: "The plucked fields, / the bushes, spent and brittle, the brown thatch on the forest floor / swoon beneath the gathered layers of gauze / before the earth is dragged once more into blossom." She sings, stirs and wakes the reader; she guides us in a modest, detailed manner and exposes the humble patterns humans have woven in a chaotic world. Like the wife of the blind man in "Thorn-Apple," Voight is "the first one up the path." Her appointed "task," "endless and partial," is "willed attention."
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The poems in Voigt's fourth collection quietly study many different moments, moods, and themes. While some take inspiration from mythology, others are embedded in a very modern dailiness and deal with such topics as a visit to the aquarium or, in "Self-Portrait at La Guardia," the experience of watching a woman in an airport waiting room draw a picture. The poems' steady tone almost belies their apparent calm, as in the opening lines from "Soft Cloud Passing": "Ice goes out of the pond as it came in--/ large translucent pupil of an eye./ If the dream is a wish,/ what does she wish for?/ Soft cloud passing between us and the sun." These carefully crafted, exacting poems look at the human character and its many struggles from a fresh new place.
- Jessica Grim, Oberlin Coll. Lib., Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (February 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393311007
• ISBN-13: 978-0393311006
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,911,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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