Bucolics (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his third collection, Yale Younger Poets prize–winner Manning goes for a new twist on the traditional genre of pastoral poetry: he praises nature, but also engages in a postmodern conversation with a version of a higher power, which he calls "Boss." In 78 rolling, untitled, unpunctuated poems, which mostly keep to an iambic beat, Manning's curious, grateful and mischievous speaker spars with his unanswering deity, alternately singing praise ("...Boss a horse beside/ a tree it makes me happy"), reeling in doubt ("...if I/ could find the little ladder Boss/ that's leaning straight against the sky/ how many rungs would I have to climb"), teasing ("...you just/ can't get above your raising Boss") and railing against the silence that answer his outcries ("...Boss you hold/ me down you hold me back/ you push against me O/ I hope you're happy now"). The poems do get repetitive—Manning establishes his strategies at the outset and then uses them again and again—but the insistent rhythm is born of real enthusiasm. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Fortunately, some boys resist being taken out of the country and become genuine patriots, lovers and defenders of the land; Wendell Berry, for instance, and now Manning in this extraordinary book. A literary term, bucolics refers to poems about shepherds, who historically constituted the lowest class of rural society but gained thereby an aura of purity. The speaker of Manning's succession of untitled, unpunctuated short poems keeps livestock but also tills the land and raises food plants; call him a very small farmer. Manning's speaker is keenly aware and appreciative of the nature immediately around him, including his own humanity. Like that greatest of pastoral poets, David, he talks with the one he understands to be responsible for it all, calling him Boss rather than Lord, because, unlike David, he is never king of anything nor ever will be. It is enough for him to talk with--let's hazard the word, though Manning doesn't--God and to work out perplexities in divine conversation. He expresses himself very colloquially, and some may be put off by just how bumpkinish he sounds. But get beyond that to discover a book that may come to be ranked with the Psalms and Blake's Songs of Innocence. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (April 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151013101
• ISBN-13: 978-0151013104
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #653,271 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm The Boss Card In Your Hand, May 12, 2007

By	Jake Adam York (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews

In his third volume of poems, Maurice Manning returns to the more lyric Appalachian language that haunted his first book, Lawrence Booth's Book of Visions (Yale Series of Younger Poets), to create a masterpiece, at once Southern, Appalachian, American, and English. Drawing on the bucolic tradition in poetry, Manning fashions a dialogue between a unnamed country boy and his "Boss," a figure construed variously as overseer, landlord, and Lord God. The language of these poems, which may be read individually or as a long sequence, moves effortlessly between the devotional and demotic, producing an almost hypnotic and always musical effect. This is one of the best books of poems, not only of this year but of many recent years, an essential purchase for anyone who loves poetry and for anyone who is interested in language of any kind. A wonderful, beautiful book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Bucolics, December 16, 2008

By	Dimple Heather (kentucky, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bucolics (Paperback)

In Bucolics, Maurice Manning gives thoughtful contemplation to the ordinary, gives reverence to the mundane and shows us what an examined life looks like. This is a beautiful collection worthy of any library. Makes a great gift.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Thing, November 9, 2007

By	A Reader (NY, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Read all three books by Maurice Manning. And try to see him read if you get the chance. He's a terrific poet, one the very best writing today.