NEW & SELECTED POEMS, APPLEMAN 1956-1996 (Hardcover)

~ PHILIP APPLEMAN (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Retold Bible stories, poetic travelogues, lyrics and love poems offer variety in this definitive collection. Many of Appleman's poems collapse under the weight of worthy messages, as in "Memo to the 21st Century," which laments that the fields and woods of Indiana are being replaced by concrete. About the Lascaux caves he writes, "...remember/ that nothing will keep your lives alive/ but art?the black and ochre visions/ you draw inside your cave." Appleman's poems (14 new here and 130 drawn from six earlier collections) rise above the average when he lets a single image dominate a poem or when he feels so strongly that his message becomes an anguished cry. A few poems seem glib, some undisciplined or self-indulgent. Lighthearted poems with a consistently sustained tone succeed, as do personal poems in which morals, rather than being forced, develop naturally from particular experience.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press (July 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557284199
• ISBN-13: 978-1557284198
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,033,498 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful humanistic poetry, May 18, 1999

By A Customer

Philip Appleman is one of the country's most important poets. This retrospective collection covers his career to date and is an excellent introduction to his work. Appleman's poems summon up a variety of emotions--alternatively anger, outrage, sadness and amusement. They never fail to be thought-provoking. A word of warning: Appleman is a humanist, and several of his pieces are criticial of religion. This is not greeting card verse, it's poetry for the mature intellect.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great American poet, January 7, 2007

By	EncausticThumb (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NEW & SELECTED POEMS, APPLEMAN 1956-1996 (Paperback)

Appleman's work deserved to be more widely read. This is a fantastic collection of poems that are alternately funny, angry, and profound, and always connect the day-to-day with the universal. The poems from "Darwin's Ark" perfectly marry the poetic with the scientific, and bring light and metaphoric power to the concepts of evolution, even where it may only apply to cars. Additionally, the poems from "Let There Be Light" bring humor (and a healthy sense of absurdity) to the stories and characters from the Bible, without ever mocking the subject matter. Rather, the characters here are wonderfully human-- and Appleman's version of Noah's Ark is both tragic and laugh-out-loud funny. His work feels more relevant in today's post-9/11 world than ever. This is a powerful collection that can stand with the finest in contemporary verse; Appleman's work is not to be missed.