Where the Nights Are Twice as Long: Love Letters of Canadian Poets

by David Eso (Editor), Jeanette Lynes (Editor)

Under the covers of Where the Nights Are Twice as Love Letters of Canadian Poets , David Eso and Jeanette Lynes collect letters and epistolary poems from more than 120 Canadian poets, including Pauline Johnson, Malcolm Lowry, Louis Riel, Alden Nowlan, Anne Szumigalski, Leonard Cohen, John Barton, and Di Brandt, and many others, encompassing the breadth of this country's English literary history. Presented in order not of the chronology of composition, but according to the poets' ages at the time of writing, the poems in the book comprise a single lifeline. The reader follows an amalgam of the Poet from the passionate intensity of youth, through the regrets and satisfactions of adulthood and middle age, and into the reflective wisdom of old age. All the writings are about love, but love in a dizzying array of colours, shapes, and sizes. Deep, enduring love, unrequited love, passionate love, violent love. Here are odes and lyric ecstasies, tirades and tantrums, pastoral comforts and abject horrors — all delivered with the vibrancy, wit, and erudition of our finest poets. Where the Nights Are Twice as Long is more than an it is an unforgettable journey into the long night of love.

Genres: Poetry, Canada

430 pages, Paperback

First published February 3, 2015

Reviews

[Penn Kemp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Congrats on Feb. 3 release day!

https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2015/0...

[Mary Parks-penwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are dozens of authors in this book each a different age, a different background, a different issue, each a different person. The ages of the authors ranges form 18 to late 60’s therefore making each letter different whether it was positive or negative, there was an intimate relationship between each author and the audience People who might be interested in this book would be people that like poetry and or realism. Realism in the sense of that the letters and poems were written for and by real people. This book is not suggested for a light read or if one is looking for some sappy romance novel. This book can be hard to read and depressing at some points, it is love after all, and love is one of the strongest human emotions, someone who likes taking their time with a book would appreciate this book. Because it does take time to read and digest, it can include heavy personal topics and it requires a lot of thought. So if you're looking for a light love novel, this is not the book for you I give this book four out of five stars because it is a very intriguing book and the construction of it is well thought out. However I do find it difficult to give an overall assessment for the book because there were so many authors with different narratives and techniques, that it would be impossible to give a general consensus. Some of the writers were very emotional in their letters, which would make sense taking the topic into account, but overridden with emotion and passion sometimes their thoughts and ideas get jumbled and lost in the disorganization of feelings. But other writers handled the writing maturely and created elegant art pieces for the audience to devour Mood: “I cannot bring a forest on my back; nor pull the lining of my pockets out.” (15)
Theme: The dawns; the dewdrops juggling the sun’s rays.” (21)
Personification: “ And have trees leap and mountains shout.” (13)

[Myna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this anthology but I can't review it, since I'm in it. (Conflict of interest.) But still, buy it, read it, and check out other reviews, especially The Literary Review of Canada, which gave it a stellar review.