Selected Poetry

by John Hollander

“Perfection is a rare accomplishment, particularly in American poetry, and the perfection of much of Hollander’s work makes it essential reading for anyone who genuinely cares for the craft of poetry.  But in our fallen world we seem fated to value power of perfection, and John Hollander’s poetry has shown a visionary power just often enough to secure him a place as one of the major figures of our moment.”
Vernon Shetley, The New Republic

Genres: Poetry

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 6, 1993

Reviews

[Lawrence]

Tentative impression, 3/14/25:

WTF, Powers of Thirteen. Although I do find poetry writing under formal constraints (including the English language’s Big Two, rhyme and meter) an admirable pursuit, the constraint used in this sub-book seems to have no effect whatsoever on the experience of reading it beyond “okay, these poems are all approximately the same length”. Am I supposed to go through all 169 of its poems under the emotion of simply being impressed by the exact same abstract fact of what their constraint is? Selected Poetry’s first poem, “Harp Lake”, constructed of stanzas inspired by the Malay pantun form, is majestic by comparison.

[Stuart Cooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woa!

[Daniel Klawitter · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this selected poems, the "Powers of Thirteen" section contains all the poems from that now sometimes hard to find book of the same title. And it truly is mind boggling....Hollander's focused, unrelenting attention, control, and lyrical language in these poems is impressive beyond words: consisting of 169 (13 squared) poems, each of 13 lines, with 13 syllables in each line.


Overall, this Selected Poems proves that Hollander is an important, riveting and careful poet...a master of form and one who will surely endure the test of time.