Belmont

by Stephen Burt

The new poetry collection by Stephen Burt, “one of the most gifted poets of his generation” (Frank Bidart)

*An NPR Best Book of 2013 * A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Poetry Book of Spring 2013 *Our skills are finally in demand.
If you mock us, Pan,
In whom we also believe, do it
As gently as you can.
                      —from “The People on the Bus”

In Belmont, Stephen Burt maps out the joys and the limits of the life he has chosen, the life that chose him, examining and reimagining parenthood, marriage, adulthood, and suburbia alongside a brace of wild or pretty alternatives: the impossible life of a girl raised by cats, the disappointed lives of would-be rock stars, and the real life to which he returns, with his family, in the town that gives the book its name, driving home in an ode-worthy silver Subaru. Can a life be invented the way a poem can? What does it mean for a precocious child, or a responsible grown-up, to depict the world we want? With wit, beauty, tenderness, and virtuosity, these poems define the precarious end of extended adolescence, and then ask what stands beyond.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2013

About the author

I write books about poetry, essays on other people’s poems, books of my own poems, and shorter pieces about poems, poets, poetry, comics, science-fiction writers, political controversies, obscure pop groups, and the WNBA.

My published books are: Close Calls With Nonsense: Reading New Poetry (Graywolf, Spring 2009), The Forms of Youth: Adolescence and 20th Century Poetry (Columbia University Press, 2007), Parallel Play: Poems (Graywolf, 2006), Randall Jarrell on W. H. Auden (editor with Hannah Brooks-Motl, Columbia University Press, 2005), Randall Jarrell and His Age (Columbia University Press, 2002), and Popular Music: Poems (Center for Literary Publishing, 1999).

I am an Associate Professor of English at Harvard University. Prior to joining the faculty at Harvard, I spent several years at Macalester College, first as an Assistant Professor, then as an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of English. I received my Ph.D. in English from Yale University in 2000, my A.B. from Harvard in 1994.

Reviews

[MJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was hard for me to finish this book because I kept wanting to flip back to some few, immediate favorites every time I got it in my hands.

The scope of these are amazing, both in terms of content and form (or format - these are not formal poems, but they are formatted in ways that are thoughtful and varied, and sometimes innovative) - children's kites, trans/gender stuff, paraphilias, the CITGO sign ("O self-important hub, / You fit me more than any other where."), owls, odes after Pindar and Sappho, global warming, rock bands and WNBA drafts. All of them are wonderful in the purest sense of the term: they are full of wonder, I wonder at them.

And as imaginative and broad-ranging as these texts are, they're also relentless and blunt about their apperception of reality: the reality of growing up, of suburbia and children, when you "realize you have become the person you are-- / not who you were, not who you want to be," and the sometimes bittersweet, sometimes gentle, sometimes resigned feeling of that self-knowledge.

"When we ask that imagination discover the limits
of the real
world only slowly,
maybe this is what we meant."
--Butterfly Parachute

[C. Varn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Burt's range of reference from classical to pop culture is extensive: Avril Lavigne and Sappho show up. Furthermore, his shies away from few topics: literal Odes to paraphilias appear early in the collection and lots of Spanish poetry and references to Mexico city show up as well. Burt is both artful and ironic, self-aware and compassionate. It can be a wild ride.

[John Pappas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had only encountered Burt through his superior criticism (mainly, but not exclusively, in Close Calls With Nothing), but this is my first
reading of a collection of his. In this collection, Burt plumbs the tensions between the joys of parenthood and the recognition of unrealized dreams that parenthood precludes. He notes the various secret selves, and past selves, that are harbored, visited and nurtured while the public self is one that unselfishly and deferentially takes care of the familial others. Drawing on the mundane imagery of Belmont, MA and the playful rhyme, near-rhymes and rhythms of one who seeks to unify past and present, dream and reality, Burt paints the imaginative worlds of parents and dreamers in suburbs across America who require safety but desire more.

[Tristan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so awesome! Every poem was beautiful; my personal favorites were "Butterfly, with Parachute" and "A Sock is Not a Human Being" both of which were sweet and witty and just totally brilliant. Burt really manages to capture life exactly as he lives it, even in the poems that are obviously not directly about him, such as "Fictitious Girl Raised by Cats." The poems are meaningful and real and every one is a small, beautiful experience. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever been a parent or had a parent, is an adult or will be an adult (assuming they are capable of reading it; very small children, not so much), and has ever lived their own life just as it is. The whole book is tender without "preciousness" and wise without pretension. A great read.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sample:

Stephen Burt - “The Soul”


Easy to recognize in its costume
made up of Sunday puzzles and Scrabble tiles

you can take it, but not very far.
Nor can you baste, drip-dry or evaluate

happily what’s left when it’s removed.

Respectable people have found it in a guitar.
Consider where it lives, or hides, in you.

No frills, enjoyable, and a lot like reading a glass of cold lemonade with your eyes.

[Christina M M Rau · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow start with the first section of poems focusing on parenthood/children, the second section takes off with poems that focus on quirky subjects, poems that pay homage to other literature, poems that incorporate the current language of tech, and lots of word play throughout. "The Paraphilia Odes" shines as the centerfold. The third section moves out to nature and has some of the same word play in addition to vivid imagery. Stephen Burt's Belmont should be on any poetry-to-read list.

[hh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Ramzzi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stephen Burt's Belmont is a jewel in its music, but all the poems are lightly written. The verses hold no deep wisdom or meaning, except the vignettes where he philosophizes in prosiac fashion. The continuous extravagance of American life here seems mundanely beautiful, but if a reader comes to make out of each, these musings are nowhere intense and passionate—even this is poetry of a Harvard professor. A consolation, nonetheless, is Burt's experimentation of form, although nothing can be regarded as avant-garde.

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely one of the better poetry collections I've read in a while. I like that the language is specific enough to convey certain feelings and images but still vague enough to be relatable. I liked having references I could actually picture such as New England public transportation and a lovably used Subaru. It's a fantastic collection of modern poetry that captures places and moments in time that are relevant time and time again that make you stop and think.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed "Swingline Stapler"

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a stretch for me - modern poetry. It was ok - nice little mediations on a gentle life in the Boston burbs.

[Leonard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really get into this book very much. To me it seemed less "poetic" than most.