Winter Stars (Pitt Poetry Series) [Paperback]

Larry Levis (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The poems are as alive on the page as if they were being spoken to us directly as we read.”
--Publishers Weekly

“There are few contemporary poets who can do what Larry Levis does. . . .There are few others who can combine so artfully the skills of the novelist and those of the poet. Levis’s gift in this, perhaps his finest work, reveals itself in that attention to detail that is the novelist’s creed, and the compulsion to say what must be said, even if one has stipped believing, that marks the poet’s calling. . . .There are wonderfully fresh moments that blossom within poems. . . .In his best poems Levis touches something dreamlike, the horror and beauty that can exist within the commonplace. . . .Levis’ poems have that sharp clarity, that pein, that haunting resonance.”
--Kliat Paperback Book Guide

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press; 1 edition (March 31, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822953684
• ISBN-13: 978-0822953685
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #244,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The beauty of Winter Stars is astounding, June 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Winter Stars (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

In Winter Stars, Larry Levis covers death, relationships and his life with a poetic power that is rarely found in modern poetry. These poems include reflections on the poet's childhood, elegies to his father, and observations on the human condition. But the most powerful poems deal with male/female relationships, especially those which have become strained or have ended. Among the relationship poems are "After the Blue Note Closes" and "My Story in a Late Style of Fire." The first is an eloquent and sad portayal of a man who is with one woman but thinking of another. The latter is a masterpiece. "My Story," with its long lines and intimate tone, almost seems like a psalm--a psalm of disappointment and hope, loss and need. A must have for anyone studying late twentieth century poetry.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT book, and I don't even like poetry., May 20, 2007

By 

Candace Marshall (Canyon Lake, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winter Stars (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

I was really shocked to find out what a talented author Levis was. He's really a HUGE talent, even if you really don't care for poetry.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Constellations, February 18, 2007

By 

Stephen M. Page "steve" (Argentina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winter Stars (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Levis has a way of writing about himself but connecting to the reader, and is an extremely gifted poet. The poems are devastatingly surprising, the language fresh, the imagery sharp. In `Poet at 17' Levis captures well the energetic recklessness and immortal feeling of youth, and juxtaposes it in perfect contrast to the fearful stasis of adulthood. I notice by the second poem the idiosyncratic use of & for and. I didn't notice it at first, so he employs it naturally and stamps himself into the poems. Levis has a place in history as a poet.