Bicentennial: Poems

by Dan Chiasson

From the acclaimed poet—a refreshing, singular collection of poems about boys and boyhood, historical cycles and personal history, memory and meaning.   Bicentennial summons the world of Chiasson’s seventies childhood in early VCRs, snow, erections, pizza, snowmobiles, high-school cliques, and the Bicentennial celebration,  but his book is also an elegy for his father, whom he never knew and who died in 2009. In these poems, Chiasson movingly revisits the kind of autobiographical poems he wrote as a young man, but with a new existential awareness that individuals are always vanishing in time, and throughout the collection he ponders time’s conundrums. “All of history, even the Romans, / they happen later, tonight sleep tight,” he tells his sons at bedtime. “You’ll learn this later. Tonight, goodnight.” In the topsy-turvy world of Bicentennial, history has both happened and is waiting to happen; boys grow up to be men; men never forget what it is to be boys; and fatherhood is the best answer to fatherlessness.

Genres: Poetry

97 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Scott Rhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who doesn't read a lot of poetry but would like to, I'm not sure Dan Chiasson's recent book, "Bicentennial", was the best choice to start with.

It's not that the poetry wasn't beautiful, nor was it that some of the poetry didn't resonate with me. It was, and some of it did. Chiasson's poetry, for me, just didn't seem as accessible as it would be for someone with more experience reading and appreciating poetry. It's difficult to admit that, when it comes to reading poetry, I'm not an advanced reader.

Still, a few poems wowed me. "The Ferris Wheel in Paris: A Play" is a strange, elegiacal poem-story about memory and death and grieving. Parts of it hit me in the gut and parts made me almost cry.

The titular poem, which Chiasson ends the book with, is, in my opinion, the best poem in the book. It is a gorgeous reminiscence of his childhood in the '70s.

There is, also, the haunting spirit of Chiasson's late father evident throughout many of the poems in the book; a father that, according to the blurb on the dust jacket, "he never knew and who died in 2009".

Of course, as I've said in other reviews, just because I don't necessarily "get it" in regards to understanding some of the poems doesn't mean that I can't recognize the beauty of Chiasson's poetry and his talent as a poet.

Each new poet that I discover inspires me to read more poetry.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: when reading poetry, it either connects with you or it doesn’t.
And this was a hard “Nah son” for me.
But what was there was written well - I can’t complain there

[Darrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times gimmicky (like the pizza slice on the cover) but there were some bright spots.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was searching for some type of nostalgia that didn’t resonate here, and while there are lines that are genuine and interesting “The way each choice/That made itself/Make us unmade us;”, nothing hit me in the gut, surprised me, inspired what Matthew Zapruder has called ‘the poetry meow.”

Still, structure in poems like “Star Catcher” (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/poetry/we...) and “Echolalia: A Play in Ten Acts” built the book out for me; internal references, scenes/cycles repeated, and Mastodons returning hold all together.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just didn't resonate with me. The language wasn't particularly arresting, and I didn't get a sense of any nostalgia, aside from a few poems. The book wasn't very well organized, either, thematically or otherwise, and I felt the second two sections were scattered and haphazardly put together. I don't usually dislike poetry books this much, so maybe Chiasson's work just isn't for me.

[David A Townsend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Chiasson in a mausoleum during a rain storm only heightened the experience of the ink and paper turning to time dust under the laser gaze of my oscillating eyes. Simple, straightforward, and stark.

[Mike Hammer · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a good collection a lot of emotional pieces, recurring themes and inventive touching things - the book start a bit abstract but once he gets more concrete it works really well and flows well in the different formats he uses - like a play with poetry and such i like it

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here are my two cents: Dan Chiasson's playbook of poems is pizza-party charming, but some slices are more like cheesy bread and almost topping-less than definitively disarming.