Relations: New and Selected Poems

by Eamon Grennan

This first major collection of Eamon Grennan's work ranges from delicate early lyrics to poems that explore in larger meditations the complex realms of family, the natural world, and love. Throughout, the poetry is marked by what Grennan refers to in one poem as "a fathoming/depth of attention anchored in the heart." Edward Hirsch has said that "as a poem of dailiness, Grennan tries to fix and nail things down even as the world melts before him." It is this sharp and profound double awareness of the solidity and fluency of things that is Grennan's most recognizable signature. These are poems that in the minute fidelity of their images and the refined mastery of their language prompt us to experience at a higher frequency the world we mostly take for granted.

228 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

About the author

Eamon Grennan is an Irish poet. He has lived in the United States, except for brief periods, since 1964. He was the Professor of English at Vassar College until his retirement in 2004.