When Elephants Last in the Dooryard Bloomed

by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury’s first ever poetry collection, available in ebook for the first time.

Carried into strange and enticing realms by his fantastic stories, the multitudes of his admirers have never doubted that the author of Dandelion Wine, The Martian Chronicles, and other uniquely imaginative works of short and long fiction is a poet. But, even so, the intensity of feeling, the imaginative range, the variety of subject and style in this, Ray Bradbury’s first collection of poems, amaze.

In ‘Remembrance’, the poet experiences a piercing gratitude when he roots out of a squirrel’s hole a long-forgotten message addressed, when he was twelve, to his later self. In ‘Old Mars, Then Be a Hearth to Us,’ the master of science fiction carries us closer to that glowing planet. In ‘Emily Dickinson, Where Are You? Herman Melville Called Your Name Last Night in His Sleep!’ the literary fantasist delights us with his romantic imagination. Lose yourself in the delights of science fiction’s master storyteller.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction

158 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.

Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).

The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".

Reviews

[Hayden Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to close out the year with my favorite author. Bradbury’s prose is often like poetry, but I’ll be honest when I say I was surprised to discover he had actually put out a book of straight-poetry. It’s a little bit of a mixed bag, which is to be expected, but it is so exuberant like all of his works, exploding from the pages with words and words and words about his favorite subjects (Mars, science, childhood, machinery) also often conjuring people from our past; Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and his piano teacher, Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, etc... The poems are more often than not quite beautiful, but my favorites, which I will delight in revisiting again and again, are as follows


- Remembrance
- If You Will Wait Just Long Enough, All Goes
- For a Daughter Traveling
- Groon
- The Woman on the Lawn
- The Father’s and Sons Banquet
- Touch Your Solitude to Mine
- And Dark Our Celebration Was
- Here All Beautifully Collides
- To Prove that Cowards Do Speak Best and True and Well
- If I Were an Epitaph

[Jimena Jurado · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prefiero por mucho la prosa poética de Bradbury en comparación con su poesía narrativa.
Como sea, les dejo algunos de los poemas que aquí se incluyen, pero en español y en audiolibro. (:
🚀 https://youtu.be/jMjbCbto3Cg

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Through his poetry Bradbury continues to address many of the concepts I recognize from his other works: sex and the mystical beauty of youth; death (often specifically in Mexico); immortality; science and space travel (as the epitome of mankind's capabilities).

The joy of reading Bradbury's writing is not just in his words (although beautiful and naturally poetic regardless of the genre) - the stories and the stanzas, as wildly effervescent as they are of themselves, are the backdrop for his ideas. He's trying to tell you something, and he wants to make sure you hear it.

And all of ye brave
Who die but once?
Get you to the grave.
For you dumb remain, and go all mute to mounds and worms.
My terms for life are better,
For while brother to night and dying each hour,
I, seeded with terror and handsome dread,
Am rebirthed as a funeral flower
Which speaks again and, with panics of Heart's lost blood, again.

Most of all, it's apparent that Bradbury loves life in all (and BECAUSE of all) its mystery and terror and heartbreak and beauty.

[John Hanson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Love Ray Bradbury but not his poetry.

[Jeff Brandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit I did not know that the great Ray Bradbury had published a book of poetry. Since he is one of my favorite authors my bias is clear. I enjoyed a lot of his poems though some were clearly better than others. It is a quick read and if I did not know who wrote these poems I would have guessed quickly due to the writing style I encountered in the works.

I will almost give it 4 stars so I will rate it 4 stars though I probably really rate it about a 3.8.
Since it is Ray Bradbury? 4 stars.

[Fredrik Österberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's what it says on a the cover, a bunch of very Ray Bradbury poems, with varying levels of rhyming going on. Some of them are profound, others funny, quite a lot of them short stories in themselves connecting with the usual Ray Bradbury themes (try and count how many times he talks about exploring the galaxy).

[Eduardo Vardheren · Rating 5 out of 5]

La verdad ya no recuerdo cuándo lo empecé a leer, pero al fin pude terminarlo y sus poemas son maravillosos, contienen la misma magia que sus prosas, pero con algo mejor: más libertad para sus imágenes y su sonoridad.

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyone who has read Bradbury's prose should not be surprised to find that he is also a poet. What may be surprising in reading a collection such as this is to see the breadth of his subject matter.

In this book, Bradbury writes odes to famous scientists, explorers and inventors as well as wistful elegies to childhood lost. He also covers those staples of poets from time immemorial, sex and death, and even turns his hand to religious imagery (cf. "Christ, Old Student in a New School" or one of my favorites "God for a Chimney Sweep").

Not all of the poems work - a few are too obscure for their own good, and I found myself lost in the author's confused images - but overall, this is a worthwhile read and it adds another facet to my experience of the great Ray Bradbury.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5. I liked this, but a lot of the material went over my head. Bradbury's prose is great. I especially liked, "Rememberance", "The Boys Across The Street are Driving My Young Daughter Mad", "O Give a Fig for Newton, Praise for Him!", "Death in Mexico", "Groon", "Ode to Electric Ben", "Mrs. Harriet Hadden Atwood, Who Played the Piano for Thomas A. Edison for the World's First Phonograph Record, Is Dead at 105", Boys Are Always Running Somewhere", and "O to Be a Boy in a Belfry". A lot of the other poems either did not appeal or were too complex for me; it's fine to read challenging works that are tough to read. Overall, a good collection of poetry from the great Bradbury.

[Krzysztof · Rating 2 out of 5]

By far the worst Bradbury I've read and the only one that was a chore. The man loves his slant and internal rhyme and also the words: hied, boys, God, Christ, chaff, seed, and lust. If he was writing under these constraints, then hats off. Otherwise (and even so), bleh.

This is also the worst title of this year's books . . . possibly of all my books.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great title, and some of the best of Bradbury's poetry.

[James Hold · Rating 1 out of 5]

Somewhere Bradbury got the idea he was a poet. He isn't. Not by a long shot.