Now And Then. Poems 1976-1978

by Robert Penn Warren

Thirty-seven of Warren's poems written between 1976 and 1978, presented in reverse chronological order.

Genres: Poetry

75 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935. He received the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for All the King's Men (1946) and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1958 and 1979. He is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry.

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, written when Robert Penn Warren was in his early 70s, deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. I've read a number of Pulitzer selections that have left me baffled, but not so here. I've also read other works by poets pushing the elderly mark and have been underwhelmed. In my experience they tend to become hermetic, their memories too specific to have broad application and often feeling like gripes against life.

I found Robert Penn Warren's book in my local library and was wowed from the beginning. I've only had the faintest exposure to Warren up to this point, the occasional poem in anthologies. Now I'm hungry to read more of his work. Now and Then is a meditation on the edges of living: dreaming, waking, and memory. As the title suggests, it explores what is gone, what is, and the mystery of what is ahead when one is reaching the end of years.

Warren is a master of form, which he handles so lightly, so subtly, in this volume that I had to consciously watch for it. I wish I had a copy of this book and the time to study it. He is also a master of metaphor and that is the skill that most impressed me in this book. He so often turns something simple into something altogether different. I could easily turn around and read this book again and get still more out of it. The first time through, I have been most absorbed by the individual poems and only faintly aware of repeating themes (light and darkness, for instance), how they work together creating a larger effect.

At the end, one thinks back to the first poem in which the narrator is visiting a apparently washed-up (the pitcher's / great shoulders, they were thinning to old man thin.) friend from childhood:

Like young David at brookside, he swooped down,
Snatched a stone, wound up, and let fly
And high on a pole over yonder the big brown insulator
Simply exploded. "See--I still got control!" he said.

The same could be said of the elderly Warren. When he wrote this book, his powers were in no way diminished.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Less abstract and possibly more mature and direct than Promises, Penn Warren’s Pulitzer-winning Now and Then collection of poems primarily focuses on time, existence, and nostalgia. Common themes are dreams, moonlight, and autumn which give his poems a readable but ethereal feel, often demonstrating his brilliance with simple yet beautiful language. Only a few were too abstract for my comprehension. Favorites include Love Recognized, Diver, Rather Like a Dream, and Heart of Autumn.

[Wilbur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense. Deep.

[Boydsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything is sacred.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all his work, Warren said that he was most proud of this collection, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for 37 stellar reasons.

Favorite Poems:
“Red-Tail Hawk and Pyre of Youth”
“Star-Fall”
“Not Quite Like a Top”
“Waiting”
“Love Recognized”
“Heart of Autumn”

[Jeffrey (Akiva) Savett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first encounter with Robert Penn Warren's poetry. I'm incredibly impressed. My book is riddled with underlines, highlights and circles, and there isn't a poem in this collection which didn't warrant a re-read.

Though I've known Warren almost solely for his great novel All The King's Men, Warren considered himself a poet first and foremost. It's clear why he won two Pulitzer Prizes for his poetry, including one for this book.

Warren's poetry is about the big questions. There are no vignettes here about a married couple slicing tomatoes at the sink (although that sounds lovely). Warren is concerned with Time and Memory and how we come to define ourselves through what we remember of ourselves. That is not to say these poems are abstract or vaguely cerebral. One of the strongest poems, "Dive," is rich with pool, body, and water imagery all used as a metaphor for delving into the unconscious.

I recommend this highly.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not having read Robert Penn Warren's poetry before, I was not expecting something so formally loose. Eloquence and sharp imagery, certainly, and they are here in abundance, but I was surprised by the degree to which Warren seems to, in many cases, let the idea he's expressing determine the length of his line or sometimes shape his stanzas.

[Marion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good poems.

[Laura Heller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love RPW's poetry.

[Jason Linden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this volume of poetry. Warren writes some of the most beautiful prose you'll find anywhere. I did lose the plot in a few poems, but overall, it was an enjoyable reading experience.