Desire: Poems (Paperback)

by Frank Bidart (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Desire, Frank Bidart's first book since In the Western Night: Collected Poems 1965-1990, is in two parts. Part I is a collection of short poems; Part II consists of a single poem, "The Second Hour of the Night," a sequel to "The First Hour of the Night" that ends In the Western Night. Bidart, a poet who makes a large arc between the universal and the idiosyncratic, has learned that the transformations themselves, rendered without comment, have the capacity to chill your blood.

The source for "The Second Hour of the Night" is Ovid's story of Myrrha and her father Cinyras, one of the least-known but most suggestive tales--a reversal of the Oedipus myth. Bidart's tormented dramatization of Ovid's version reads like an investigation into the deepest layers of the story. While both poets turn the doomed heroine into a plant, Bidart looks into causes and motivation in a way that Ovid does not.

The short poems in the first section of Desire are also very strong. The poet, torn apart by the death of his lover, gives you a sense of the distance he has traveled over the past 15 years when he retranslates the two-line poem "Catullus: Excrucior," which he brilliantly adapted in The Sacrifice.

Version in The Sacrifice:

I hate and love. Ignorant fish, who even
wants the fly while writhing.

Version in Desire:

I hate and--love. The sleepless body hammering a nail nails
itself, hanging crucified.

Bidart's acute perception of complicity allows him to do away with the idea of the victim. This is a formidable achievement, and his work is worthy of the scrutiny it demands. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"Insightful, disturbing, complex, personal, painstaking, and driven. Almost no poet in English since Robert Lowell . . . has written verse that so successfully exemplifies these qualities." -- Stephen Burt, The New Leader

"[Desire] is insightful, disturbing, complex, personal, painstaking, and driven. Almost no poet since Robert Lowell . . . has written verse that so successfully exemplifies these qualities."--Stephen Burt, The New Leader

"Cementing his reputation as a poet of astonishing originality, Bidart revisits classical encounters--the aftermath of a battle described by Tacitus, an incestuous romance in Ovid--and fashions them into a poetic idiom uniquely his own."--David Lehman, People
-- Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (March 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374525994
• ISBN-13: 978-0374525996
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #741,556 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Read Ovid AND Bidart!, February 16, 2001

By	matthew robinson "prairiekid2001" (UNI, Iowa) - See all my reviews

"The Second Hour of the Night" is probably the best long poem written in English in the past few decades. This book was robbed of the Pulitzer, and is worth buying (or just reading) for it alone. The first half of the book is, honestly, just filler. But the second, final poem makes up for it!

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay, but not worth buying, September 2, 2004

By	foundpoem - See all my reviews

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This is a very short book. I enjoyed some of its first half when I read it. Then, but for two poems, I didn't even care to read the rest more than once. I tried, but it had little to no emotional impact. I love, love, love his interpretation of Catullus's Odi Et Amo -- love it. I'd say it's worth the price of admission, but... there it is right in the book description above, to be easily printed out and saved (and only one version is in this book). I couldn't get into the second half at all, the long (half-book length) poem based on Ovid's work. I liked the idea more than its execution; I was bored.

The book is good; his style is good, but somehow only two poems stuck with me; "Odi Et Amo" (called Catullus: Excrucior here) and the one the other reviewer mentioned, with the line, "I wake and sleep and wake and sleep...." I think reading the same number of poems of his, on the internet, would suffice. If you love the Catulus poem like I do -- in its original, there are other English-speaking poets who've also written interesting interpretations -- I particularly like Ezra Pound's.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Book Awards and Such, October 22, 2006

By	W. Davis (Richmond, IN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

May we be reminded this was a great choice in 1997 for the National Book Critics Circle Award. I point this out because most of the books that have received the award are great reads. His book "Golden State" probably was the best before this, while remembering "The Sacrifice" as well. I want to find a copy of "Golden State". Anyway, when thinking about this book, one should remember the notoriety that it and its author have received. It was a finalist for the National Book Award as well. I have found that both awards can sometimes mean that the book is actually worth more of a read than some pulitzer prize winning books, especially more recently.