What do you think?
Rate this book
Worldly Hopes
"A maker who would have delighted Whitman and Emerson."―Harold Bloom In the poetry of A. R. Ammons, Helen Vendler has written, "the scientific world is beautifully in balance with the perceptual one." Originally published in 1982, this collection reminds us why Ammons must be read by all those who would understand our age and one of its most brilliant voices.
- GenresPoetry
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
12 people want to read
About the author
A.R. Ammons
51 books64 followersArchie Randolph Ammons was born outside Whiteville, North Carolina, on February 18, 1926. He started writing poetry aboard a U. S. Navy destroyer escort in the South Pacific. After completing service in World War II, he attended Wake Forest University and the University of California at Berkeley.
His honors included the Academy's Wallace Stevens Award, the Poetry Society of America's Robert Frost Medal, the Ruth Lilly Prize, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
He lived in Ithaca, New York, where he was Goldwin Smith Professor of Poetry at Cornell University until his retirement in 1998. Ammons died on February 25, 2001.
His honors included the Academy's Wallace Stevens Award, the Poetry Society of America's Robert Frost Medal, the Ruth Lilly Prize, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
He lived in Ithaca, New York, where he was Goldwin Smith Professor of Poetry at Cornell University until his retirement in 1998. Ammons died on February 25, 2001.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 19, 2025
A True Master at the Height of his Powers
It is dismaying that such a wonderful volume of poems, probably one of the greatest of a decade that included some of the best works by Ashbery, Koch, Rich, and Hall, has so few ratings or reviews. I originally read Worldly Hopes and Sumerian Vistas as an undergraduate at UMass Amherst in the mid-90s, and only later discovered his better known longer poems Sphere and Garbage. But these often very short, sometimes haiku-like poems, meditations on natural experience and self discovery, are as good as any of his more widely acknowledged collections. Indeed, the often playful and always original celebration of language that exemplifies each of these poems, the motions of thought and vision that each captures, is made all the more powerful by their exquisite concision. Alongside Dickinson, Ammons is one of the few great masters of the short lyric. These poems are deceptively simple; they are not tequila shots, but a peaty scotch to be savored slowly.
It is dismaying that such a wonderful volume of poems, probably one of the greatest of a decade that included some of the best works by Ashbery, Koch, Rich, and Hall, has so few ratings or reviews. I originally read Worldly Hopes and Sumerian Vistas as an undergraduate at UMass Amherst in the mid-90s, and only later discovered his better known longer poems Sphere and Garbage. But these often very short, sometimes haiku-like poems, meditations on natural experience and self discovery, are as good as any of his more widely acknowledged collections. Indeed, the often playful and always original celebration of language that exemplifies each of these poems, the motions of thought and vision that each captures, is made all the more powerful by their exquisite concision. Alongside Dickinson, Ammons is one of the few great masters of the short lyric. These poems are deceptively simple; they are not tequila shots, but a peaty scotch to be savored slowly.
March 30, 2019
I had almost forgotten how brilliant A.R. Ammons is. This collection, by and large, is light and airy, with lots of skinny little poems that fly down the page. Each one is a gem in which Ammons revels in the delights of both nature and language.
December 30, 2019
Merchandise
“When we have
played with
the toy life
death takes it
back without
condition
whatever the condition” (49)
“When we have
played with
the toy life
death takes it
back without
condition
whatever the condition” (49)
November 5, 2023
Lovely, sharp, and clear. How much Ammons is able to accomplish in so few, short lines.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews