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26 poemas tempranos
26 POEMAS TEMPRANOS
93 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
About the author
Mark Strand
181 books267 followersMark Strand was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, essayist, and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990. He was a professor of English at Columbia University and also taught at numerous other colleges and universities.
Strand also wrote children's books and art criticism, helped edit several poetry anthologies and translated Spanish poet Rafael Alberti.
He is survived by a son, a daughter and a sister.
Strand also wrote children's books and art criticism, helped edit several poetry anthologies and translated Spanish poet Rafael Alberti.
He is survived by a son, a daughter and a sister.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 10, 2024
‘… I may / Have a passion for fires, / And travel by train to keep / From having to put them out.’
These poems are taken from four early collections and seem to get darker and darker. The playfully surreal contradictions of The Whole Story (even this has a pyromaniacal touch about it) and The Accident (which nonetheless ends in death) quickly give way to a melancholic foreboding.
I wondered if there were some dark Plathian tragedies in Strand's life, that etched on his soul led to a preoccupation with darkness and death. Though he was twice divorced there's little more of his personal life out there (which maybe is as it should be) and if we don't know, I felt intrusive speculating. Maybe some of us simply have an affinity with melancholy and dark places.
The early poem The Suicide is possibly this collection’s turning point into dark introspection; still whimsical yet naturally its title doesn’t sugar coat its ending.
‘I jump from a building / As if I were falling asleep, / The wind like a pillow / Slowing me down,’
And in My Life by Somebody Else there’s still that surrealism but it’s mixed not only with a little self-referentiality but the commonly found themes of night, death, self-displacement and disillusionment, in addition to alienation which seeps into the lines with a feeling of unrequitedness.
‘Why do you never come? Must I have you by being / somebody else? Must I write My Life by somebody else? / My Death by somebody else? Are you listening / Somebody else has arrived. Somebody else is writing.’
Then there’s the insecurity of The Tunnel and Violent Storm and the ambiguity of White that despite some optimism eloquently frames what would be considered bright and favourable through spectacles tinted by darkness.
‘the white of sorrow, / the white of death. / Even the night that calls / like a dark wish is white; / and in my sleep as I turn / in the weather of dreams / it is the white of my sheets / and white shades of the moon / drawn over my floor / that save me for morning.’
In Poems of Air even meteorological phenomenon die, where ‘The grave of light is everywhere.’, while I thought Keeping Things Whole encapsulated Strand’s preoccupation with alienation and displacement in an elegiacal way.
‘In a field / I am the absence / of field. / This is / always the case. / Wherever I am / I am what is missing.’
All these poems are simple and eloquent but at the same time disarming and direct That said, there’s a smoothing over of the visceral anger and brutality of Ted Hughes; though you sense the same strength of feeling it’s covered by a veil of delicate wistfulness. This is dark, surreal and mysterious but certainly none the worse for that. A thoroughly engrossing read in a beautifully bound book. A limited edition which is no more expensive for that. As the title alludes, this edition curiously presents these poems in English and Spanish, which is also a marvellous way to improve your understanding of either language.
These poems are taken from four early collections and seem to get darker and darker. The playfully surreal contradictions of The Whole Story (even this has a pyromaniacal touch about it) and The Accident (which nonetheless ends in death) quickly give way to a melancholic foreboding.
I wondered if there were some dark Plathian tragedies in Strand's life, that etched on his soul led to a preoccupation with darkness and death. Though he was twice divorced there's little more of his personal life out there (which maybe is as it should be) and if we don't know, I felt intrusive speculating. Maybe some of us simply have an affinity with melancholy and dark places.
The early poem The Suicide is possibly this collection’s turning point into dark introspection; still whimsical yet naturally its title doesn’t sugar coat its ending.
‘I jump from a building / As if I were falling asleep, / The wind like a pillow / Slowing me down,’
And in My Life by Somebody Else there’s still that surrealism but it’s mixed not only with a little self-referentiality but the commonly found themes of night, death, self-displacement and disillusionment, in addition to alienation which seeps into the lines with a feeling of unrequitedness.
‘Why do you never come? Must I have you by being / somebody else? Must I write My Life by somebody else? / My Death by somebody else? Are you listening / Somebody else has arrived. Somebody else is writing.’
Then there’s the insecurity of The Tunnel and Violent Storm and the ambiguity of White that despite some optimism eloquently frames what would be considered bright and favourable through spectacles tinted by darkness.
‘the white of sorrow, / the white of death. / Even the night that calls / like a dark wish is white; / and in my sleep as I turn / in the weather of dreams / it is the white of my sheets / and white shades of the moon / drawn over my floor / that save me for morning.’
In Poems of Air even meteorological phenomenon die, where ‘The grave of light is everywhere.’, while I thought Keeping Things Whole encapsulated Strand’s preoccupation with alienation and displacement in an elegiacal way.
‘In a field / I am the absence / of field. / This is / always the case. / Wherever I am / I am what is missing.’
All these poems are simple and eloquent but at the same time disarming and direct That said, there’s a smoothing over of the visceral anger and brutality of Ted Hughes; though you sense the same strength of feeling it’s covered by a veil of delicate wistfulness. This is dark, surreal and mysterious but certainly none the worse for that. A thoroughly engrossing read in a beautifully bound book. A limited edition which is no more expensive for that. As the title alludes, this edition curiously presents these poems in English and Spanish, which is also a marvellous way to improve your understanding of either language.
Displaying 1 of 1 review