The Late Wisconsin Spring

Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets

by John Koethe

"[Koethe's] new collection is that rarity, a book of poems with a genuine philosophical dimension and an elegant but conversational poise."-- The New York Times Book Review

"Solemn and playful, John Koethe's poems lock themselves gradually but firmly into one's memory. His new collection offers in his own words, 'happiness, for myself and strangers.'"--John Ashbery

Originally published in 1984.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

John Koethe is an American poet, essayist and professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Koethe is originally from San Diego, California. He was educated at Princeton University and Harvard University.Koethe's published work includes Blue Vents (Audit/Poetry, 1969), Domes (Columbia University Press, 1973), The Late Wisconsin Spring (Princeton University Press, 1984), The Continuity of Wittgenstein's Thought (Cornell University Press, 1996), Falling Water (HarperPerennial, 1997), The Constructor, (HarperFlamingo, 1999), Poetry at One Remove (University of Michigan Press, 2000) and North Point North: New and Selected Poems (HarperCollins, 2002). His most recent books include Scepticism, Knowledge, and Forms of Reasoning (Cornell University Press, 2005), Sally's Hair (HarperCollins, 2006), Ninety-fifth Street (Harper Parennial, 2009) and ROTC Kills (Harper Perennial, 2012).

Koethe has also contributed poetry and essays to publications including Poetry, Paris Review, Quarterly Review of Literature, Parnassus, and Art News.His work has been included in anthologies of poetry, including The Best American Poetry (2003).Additionally, he was selected to contribute his views on contemporary poetry for the book Ecstatic Occasions, Expedient Forms, which billed him as one of "85 leading contemporary poets."

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our lives change. And our worlds, like dreams
So absolute even our sorrow seems
A form of happiness, are being changed.
*
[…] it gets harder every day
To separate the moments from the memories
Of what we did with them, or what we are
From what you were and what I wanted to become
*
Time is without us and is unimaginable
[…]
Time has to absorb before the real kind of history can start,
Start to forget us.
*
There are moments pregnant with a past
[…]
Lost to us now, but by which we manage to exist.

[RinTinTin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars because I grabbed this for free attracted to the title with no expectations attached and ended up with a short set of beautiful, accessible, quotable poems.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Late Wisconsin Spring by John Koethe

The Late Wisconsin Spring is a book of poems published by the Princeton Legacy Library. I haven’t read much poetry since my college days so I thought I would open up my horizons and read something different. This collection contained mostly sad poems on what could have been and how the things could be different if another path had been chosen. I thought they were well written and there were many beautiful lines that I’ve shared below.

Each One as She May
“One life is enough. One private story
Lived out on a summer day.”

“For life is reading and respite from reading,
And living in a vague idea of where the others are,
Or in dreams, or in these simple versions of the past.”

Picture of Little Letters
“Afterwards. The words meander through the mirror
But I don’t want them now, I don’t want these abbreviations.
What I want in poetry is a kind of abstract photography
Of the nerves, but what I like photography
Is the poetry of literal pictures of the neighborhood.”

Dark Bedroom
“And a beautiful moon fills the sky with transparent light.
Where is that happiness I knew so many years ago?
Or was it only casual fears held in the passing
Solitude of recollection, here under the summer stars?”

Overall this was an interesting collection of poems with some great lines.