This collection of stunningly beautiful poems encompasses the natural, human, and spiritual realms, and is bound together by the universal themes of time and mortality. With clarity and sureness of craft, Gluck's poetry questions, explores, and finally celebrates the ordeal of being alive.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Browse the best books of summer including blockbusters, beach reads, and editors' picks in our Summer Reading Store. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
In an earlier set of poems, The Garden, Gluck retold the myth of Eden; in this sequence it is clear that paradise has been lost, and the poet, Eve-like, struggles to make sense of her place in the universe. For this old and still post-modern theme, Gluck bravely takes the risk of adopting a highly symbolic structure. She uses the conceit of parallel discourses between the flowers of a garden and the gardener (the poet), and between the gardener/poet and an unnamed god. The reader shares the poet's human predicament of being caught between these material and spiritual worlds, each lush and musical, drawing inspiration from both: from the flowers, a hymn to communality; from the god, a universal view of human suffering. The collection was awarded the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
From Publishers Weekly
The award-winning author of The Triumph of Achilles looks here at relations between heaven and earth. More than half of the poems address an "unreachable father," or are spoken in a voice meant to be his: "Your souls should have been immense by now, / not what they are, / small talking things . . . This ambitious and original work consists of a series of "matins," "vespers," poems about flowers, and others about the seasons or times of day, carrying forward a dialogue between the human and divine. This is poetry of great beauty, where lamentation, doubt and praise show us a god who can blast or console, but who too often leaves us alone; Gluck, then, wishes to understand a world where peace "rushes through me, / . . . like bright light through the bare tree." Only rarely (in "The Doorway," for example) does the writing fail. But when dialogue melds with lyricism, the result is splendid. In "Violets" the speaker tells her "dear / suffering master": "you / are no more lost / than we are, under / the hawthorn tree, the hawthorn holding / balanced trays of pearls." This important book has a powerful, muted strangeness.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful
By J. Tibbetts
Format:Paperback
I read this book for a university intro to poetry class. I had never read much real poetry before this class, so I had no choice but to approach this book with the beginner's mind. I must say that out of all of the great poetry we read in class, this book had my favorite selections in it. It inspired wonderful conversation about the idea of God, the capacity for nature to teach us new things, and the way that many humans don't seem to understand the world that they live in. There is no fixed voice here, at times the persona is God observing his creation, or it is the mind of a flower or a plant and at other times it is a despairing, confused and frustrated human. It is not always clear which voice each poem is written in, as God and human voices both sound like the plant voice sometimes and vice versa. This makes the plant voice something like the middle ground where God and the humans could communicate if only they knew how. All in all the balance of the three different styles of poetry blend together into a cohesive whole that really should be read as one related theme. Within all of that, there are images in this book that I think will either inspire or haunt you, or both. This is what I had imagined great poetry to be. This book defies the cliches about what nature poetry should be like and establishes a vivid and beautiful alternative world that is actually right before our eyes.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If I love Louise Glück, I adore *The Wild Iris*. There is not a single poem in this book that does not move me, speak to me, elicit some sort of positive response. I've loved Glück for quite awhile, and I came back to her recently in an attempt to recover from the events of a particularly devastating week. I sought new life in *Vita Nova* and found merely a hint of what *The Wild Iris* gave me today. I read this book quite awhile ago, and my second coming to it now revitalized me, left me feeling fresh and new and able to move on with my life. Thanks, Ms. Glück.
The book is a poetic sequence, epitomizes the idea of a sequence, in fact. That is, this is not a novel-in-verse, like the stupendous, magnificent, unbelievable *Autobiography of Red* by Anne Carson. There is no real plot, no real characters, no real setting. (I emphasize the adjective 'real,' because there is a plot and a setting and there are characters, but not in the traditional sense.) Rather, the poems speak to each other, they converse. Literally, as the book takes the form of two parallel discourses: 1) between a female gardener and God and 2) between plants and the female gardener or, more generally, humanity. It is no mistake that the book abounds with flowers and gardens and God: the creation myth of Adam and Eve in the garden acts a sort of driving force behind the entire book, although the Paradise lost is not necessarily a physical location or even a proximity to any one particular deity. The plot, as far as there is a plot, chronicles disillusionment, frustration, despair, and yes, hope. Most interestingly, every single one of the characters -- the flowers, the gardener, and God itself -- feel the emotions I've listed, and this anthropomorphizing of everything is yet another thread that weaves its way through the poems, connecting them and braiding them into the Pulitzer-prize winning sequence that they are.
The book, however, is more than the sum of its parts: each poem, individually, is its own work of art, and if the poetry were subordinated to the book, most of Glück's genius would be lost. The tone of the poems is unique: distant yet not detached, chilled yet not cold. Critics have claimed that Glück is neither an intellectual poet (à la Eliot) or a Confessional poet (à la Plath) but somewhere in between, and I'd have to agree. Her poems lack the in-the-moment emotional tantrums of things like "Lady Lazarus" or "Daddy," but they are not the universalized ice sculptures of *The Waste-land*. They are not so easily understood (at least superficially) as a Robert Lowell poem -- specifically with *The Wild Iris*, for instance, a bit of background on some of the flowers that speak is required to unlock the poems -- and yet they are not as inscrutable as something Stevens or Eliot wrote earlier in the century. Many of the poems have the characteristic irony with which Glück captured my heart long ago, an almost bitter and yet still amused tinge of sarcasm that makes me crack a smile despite the usually negative thoughts it conveys. Although she writes in unrhymed free verse, Glück is a master of the line, and this book has some of the most powerful single lines I have read in contemporary poetry: "in the raw wind of the new world"; "of enduring? Blaze of the red cheek, glory"; "this one summer we have entered eternity."
An amazing, life-changing book that answers the age-old adage "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" with a resounding, polyphonic YES.
The book is a poetic sequence, epitomizes the idea of a sequence, in fact. That is, this is not a novel-in-verse, like the stupendous, magnificent, unbelievable *Autobiography of Red* by Anne Carson. There is no real plot, no real characters, no real setting. (I emphasize the adjective 'real,' because there is a plot and a setting and there are characters, but not in the traditional sense.) Rather, the poems speak to each other, they converse. Literally, as the book takes the form of two parallel discourses: 1) between a female gardener and God and 2) between plants and the female gardener or, more generally, humanity. It is no mistake that the book abounds with flowers and gardens and God: the creation myth of Adam and Eve in the garden acts a sort of driving force behind the entire book, although the Paradise lost is not necessarily a physical location or even a proximity to any one particular deity. The plot, as far as there is a plot, chronicles disillusionment, frustration, despair, and yes, hope. Most interestingly, every single one of the characters -- the flowers, the gardener, and God itself -- feel the emotions I've listed, and this anthropomorphizing of everything is yet another thread that weaves its way through the poems, connecting them and braiding them into the Pulitzer-prize winning sequence that they are.
The book, however, is more than the sum of its parts: each poem, individually, is its own work of art, and if the poetry were subordinated to the book, most of Glück's genius would be lost. The tone of the poems is unique: distant yet not detached, chilled yet not cold. Critics have claimed that Glück is neither an intellectual poet (à la Eliot) or a Confessional poet (à la Plath) but somewhere in between, and I'd have to agree. Her poems lack the in-the-moment emotional tantrums of things like "Lady Lazarus" or "Daddy," but they are not the universalized ice sculptures of *The Waste-land*. They are not so easily understood (at least superficially) as a Robert Lowell poem -- specifically with *The Wild Iris*, for instance, a bit of background on some of the flowers that speak is required to unlock the poems -- and yet they are not as inscrutable as something Stevens or Eliot wrote earlier in the century. Many of the poems have the characteristic irony with which Glück captured my heart long ago, an almost bitter and yet still amused tinge of sarcasm that makes me crack a smile despite the usually negative thoughts it conveys. Although she writes in unrhymed free verse, Glück is a master of the line, and this book has some of the most powerful single lines I have read in contemporary poetry: "in the raw wind of the new world"; "of enduring? Blaze of the red cheek, glory"; "this one summer we have entered eternity."
An amazing, life-changing book that answers the age-old adage "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" with a resounding, polyphonic YES.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By "bluestarla"
Format:Paperback
I loved this book! I picked this collection of transcendant poems while a senior in high school and was enthralled with its poignancy. I was able to relate to the character's questioning of an omnipresent God as well as the pain they faced when considering the possibilities of a harsh, uncaring "other" in the Heavens. Completely fulfilling and a joy to read!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Louise Gluck
Gluck tests you.
What else do i need?
She stands the test of her times.
Life at it's richest.
Lo!
What else do i need?
She stands the test of her times.
Life at it's richest.
Lo!
Published 26 days ago by J. Lindsley
5.0 out of 5 stars
Third copy
I keep buying this wonderful and deep book because friends see it and want to. Take it home with them.
Published 4 months ago by Sbl617
4.0 out of 5 stars
Like it very much.
Beautiful writer. I like to read poetry one poem at a time and reflect on it. This is the case with this wonderful poet as well.
Published 4 months ago by portquin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review of The Wild Iris
In The Wild Iris, Louise Glück addresses the core aspects of humanity: life, death, and love. Additionally, she emphasizes nature and its profound impact on everyday life. Read more
Published 6 months ago by K.Campbell
5.0 out of 5 stars
God versus Man/Woman
Wow! I loved this poetry book! I don't know if I quite understand where Louise is coming from though. Is she being sarcastic towards religion? Read more
Published 7 months ago by Desert Beauty
5.0 out of 5 stars
A "must have" book of poetry.
Wild Iris is a book of well-crafted, enigmatic, provocative, pithy and, frankly, beautiful poetry. I encourage anyone who appreciates nature poets to find a place on the poetry... Read more
Published 22 months ago by mcgraww
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Wild Iris
I admit, when I first came upon The Wild Iris in an upper level university poetry course, my first opinions were negative. Read more
Published on April 27, 2011 by Ben
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Book of Poetry
The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck is a beautiful book of poetry that cannot be understood unless read as a whole. Read more
Published on April 14, 2009 by Lauren Gillies
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Beautiful Journey
This book of poems brings notions of birth, death, and existence to life through nature imagery. The poems are easy to comprehend and deliver deep comfort beneath the moving poetic... Read more
Published on April 8, 2009 by Danielle Palombo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Psalms from the Garden
Louise Glück explores the complex relationship between God, humans, and the natural world with startling emotional depth in The Wild Iris, her sixth collection. Read more
Published on August 30, 2006 by Allen Hoey
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
