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Collected Poems Paperback – November 5, 2002

by James Merrill (Author)

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The publication of James Merrill's Collected Poems is a landmark in the history of modern American literature. His First Poems—its sophistication and virtuosity were recognized at once—appeared half a century ago. Over the next five decades, Merrill's range broadened and his voice took on its characteristic richness. In book after book, his urbanity and wit, his intriguing images and paradoxes, shone with a rare brilliance. As he once told an interviewer, he "looked for English in its billiard-table sense—words that have been set spinning against their own gravity." But beneath their surface glamour, his poems were driven by an audacious imagination that continually sought to deepen and refine our perspectives on experience. Among other roles, he was one of the supreme love poets of the twentieth century. In delicate lyric or complex narrative, this book abounds with what he once called his "chronicles of love and loss." Like Wallace Stevens and W. H. Auden before him, Merrill sought to quicken the pulse of a poem in surprising and compelling ways—ways, indeed, that changed how we came to see our own lives. Years ago, the critic Helen Vendler spoke for others when she wrote of Merrill, "The time eventually comes, in a good poet's career, when readers actively wait for his books: to know that someone out there is writing down your century, your generation, your language, your life . . . He has become one of our indispensable poets."

This book brings together a remarkable body of work in an authoritative edition. From Merrill's privately printed book, The Black Swan, published in 1946, to his posthumous collection, A Scattering of Salts, which appeared in 1995, all of the poems he published are included, except for juvenalia and his epic, The Changing Light at Sandover. In addition, twenty-one of his translations (from Apollinaire, Montale, and Cavafy, among others) and forty-four of his previously uncollected poems (including those written in the last year of his life) are gathered here for the first time.

Collected Poems in the first volume in a series that will present all of James Merrill's work—his novels and plays, and his collected prose. Together, these volumes will testify to a monumental career that distinguished American literature in the late twentieth century and will continue to inspire readers and writers for years to come.

From the Hardcover edition.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The lyrics in Merrill's Collected Poems ought to last as long as people still care about poetry . . . poetry as alive as Merrill's is why people care." — David Gates, Newsweek

"Gigantic and ravishing . . . What this new volume provides, not without a small shock even to those familiar with Merrill, is the size and scope of his accomplishment . . . [A] monumental new collection." — Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Times Book Review

"Merrill . . . has been well-served by his executors and editors, McClatchy and Yenser . . . [In this collection] there's more than enough—in humor and sorrow, in tones of voice, in diction, in subjects--to keep one engaged for days, for years, for life. Reading Merrill is like reading Marvell or Keats or Dickinson; having his lines in mind is that unique thing, a voice that says somebody was here before." —Caroline Fraser, L.A. Times

"The Collected Poems . . . sensitively edited by JD McClatchy and Stephen Yenser . . . represents a major literary event." — Edmund White, Out Magazine

"If you like poetry composed (in Hopkin's words) in 'the current language heightened,' Merrill will please you . . . If you have despaired of finding words subtle enough for all that goes on between lovers over time; if you are delighted by poetic invention, Merrill will please you. If you are eager for a window into the pangs and pleasures of gay existence, or if you want to know what a person of ever-attentive receptivity might have seen between 1926 and 1995, Merrill will please you. Above all, if you value lightness of touch, Merrill will please you . . . The weight of the wreath is heavy on all poets, but Merrill rarely allowed the weight to be felt, or the wrinkles to show." — Helen Vendler, The New Yorker

From the Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

ion of James Merrill's Collected Poems is a landmark in the history of modern American literature. His First Poemsits sophistication and virtuosity were recognized at onceappeared half a century ago. Over the next five decades, Merrill's range broadened and his voice took on its characteristic richness. In book after book, his urbanity and wit, his intriguing images and paradoxes, shone with a rare brilliance. As he once told an interviewer, he "looked for English in its billiard-table sensewords that have been set spinning against their own gravity." But beneath their surface glamour, his poems were driven by an audacious imagination that continually sought to deepen and refine our perspectives on experience. Among other roles, he was one of the supreme love poets of the twentieth century. In delicate lyric or complex narrative, this book abounds with what he once called his "chronicles of love and loss." Like Wallace Stevens and W. H

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Paperback: 885 pages
Publisher: Knopf; Reprint edition (November 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 037570941X
ISBN-13: 978-0375709418
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.8 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
Average Customer Review: 10 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,308,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6915 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Regional & Cultural > United States
- #130729 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States

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April 18, 2001

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

James Merrill was the greatest American poet of his generation, and while he was alive, one of the most important poets writing in English. This collection presents just about every poem that Merrill finished, apart from the long poem, *The Changing Light at Sandover* (the "ouija board poem"). That means that there are about 44 poems in here that no one's ever seen, plus uncollected poems from Merrill's first volume and the complete text of a 1974 collection called *The Yellow Pages*, which would be REALLY hard to get elsewhere.

Merrill was a virtuoso from the start, but his early poems - mostly from the first book - are, more often than not, somewhat too too, if you know what I mean. Still, they are better made than anyone else's first poems, and some of them are fine. They are show-pieces of a big prodigious boy.

Starting with some poems in *The Country of a Thousand Years of Peace* and more in *Water Street*, Merrill started to make some of the finest lyric poems in modern English. After *Nights and Days* (1966), Merrill was unrivalled.

There is no poem in this volume that is not worth the time and the effort. All of the great poems are here, such as "The Broken Home", "Days of 1964" and "Lost in Translation" and everything in the great valedictory performance, *A Scattering of Salts* . But, sometimes Merrill is at his most sublime in miniature lyrics such as "A Downward Look," and "Little Fallacy."

Even if you already own the *Selected Poems* or *From the First Nine*, you still need this. It's expensive but it will pay you back for the rest of your life. Find the money and buy this book.

29 people found this helpful

Comment

He is not easy to read

November 11, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I think Merrill is the preeminent poet of our time. He is not easy to read, but with an effort, you can discover beauty & lyric, as well as wit & cunning.

One person found this helpful

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Arthur J. Jacobson

James Merrill is a genius. Son of Charles Merrill ...

February 20, 2018

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

James Merrill is a genius. Son of Charles Merrill, founder of Merrill Lynch, he wrote The Changing LIght at Sandover - a poem to rival Milton's Paradise Lost.

Comment

December 31, 2002

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Merrill requires no introduction. This is a splendid and comprehensive volume. It is a monolith, which commemorates the work of one of America's outstanding contemporary poets.
This collection includes some truly marvelous work: "The Drowning Poet," "Entrance From Sleep," "Poem in Spring," "Willow," "Walking At Night," "An Urban Convalescence," "The World and the Child," and "My Father's Irish Setters," to name a few.
I enthusiastically recommend this anthology. It serves as a means to remember that poetry of the Western hemisphere is capable of transcendent vision--that the Muses can still sing to twentieth century scribes.

7 people found this helpful

Comment

Missing One Thing...

September 24, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

It is James Merrill. What more need be said...except that The Changing Light At Sandover was not included in the volume.

2 people found this helpful

Comment

Bull Market for Poetry

June 15, 2001

Format: Hardcover

Weighing in at almost 900 pages, this book holds just about all the Merrill you'll ever need outside of "Sandover." Merrill wrote exactly the kind of poems I used to think of as "real" poetry--stately, measured, clever & bittersweet, with lots of exquisite images to savor along the way. So why does this writing feel so stuffy and distant to me now? Reading a Merrill poem is somewhere between doing a crossword and shopping for antiques--you exercise the brain and always find something curious to enjoy, but even the most intimate ones left me strangely unmoved. I know Merrill has a legion of fans, and I can see why--these poems are among the best of their kind. But somehow they reminded me of the good chairs in my mom's living room--you could admire them, but you couldn't sit down. Still, the editors have done an excellent job and you'll enjoy going through this handsome book to make up your own mind.

29 people found this helpful

Comment

A Must for Any Poetry Lover's Collection

March 3, 2001

Format: Hardcover

James Merrill stands in the poetry canon among the best of the 20th Century, and this volume reminds us why. Merrill is our poet of formal grace and biting wit, and the apparent effortlessness with which he wrote his poems (whether truly without much effort or not) is daunting, especially for those sitting in front of the paper trying to draft verse themselves. His work, like Elizabeth Bishop's, is quiet and, many times because of the silences, disturbing in the ways in which they question the sensibilities of vision and the interpretations we make of the natural and emotional worlds. One sees almost the entire range of Merrill's work in this collection, and one sees a mind of immense intelligence at play. One can teach a person to write verse, but Merrill reminds us we cannot teach someone how to see and re-write the world. This is a poetry of tremendous beauty and incredible doubt. No collection of poetry, or Literature in general, should be without it.

21 people found this helpful

Comment

Nothing short of astounding

December 21, 2005

Format: Hardcover

Merrill doesn't need another admirer, but my gratitude compels me to write. This volume is further proof that the gulf between great poetry and all the mediocre stuff is immense. Genius exists--and Merrill has it in abundance. Mastery of craft, breadth of vision, depth of emotion, intensity of intellect--Merrill's work reveals all the hallmarks of greatness. An extraordinary and generous accomplishment. I will read this book as long as I'm alive.

9 people found this helpful

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