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In Beauty Bright: Poems
The lyric poems of In Beauty Bright, although marked by the same passion and swiftness as Gerald Stern’s previous work, move into an area of knowledge—even wisdom—that reflects a long life of writing, teaching, and activism. They are poems of grief and anger, but the music is delicate and moving.
from “In Beauty Bright”
In beauty-bright and such it was like Blake’s
lily and though an angel he looked absurd
dragging a lily out of a beauty-bright store
wrapped in tissue with a petal drooping,
nor was it useless—you who know it know
how useful it is—and how he would be dead
in a minute if he were to lose it though
how do you lose a lily?
from “In Beauty Bright”
In beauty-bright and such it was like Blake’s
lily and though an angel he looked absurd
dragging a lily out of a beauty-bright store
wrapped in tissue with a petal drooping,
nor was it useless—you who know it know
how useful it is—and how he would be dead
in a minute if he were to lose it though
how do you lose a lily?
126 pages, Hardcover
First published September 3, 2012
8 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Gerald Stern
67 books33 followersGerald Stern, the author of seventeen poetry collections, has won the National Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, the Ruth Lilly Prize, and the Wallace Stevens Award, among others. He lives in Lambertville, New Jersey.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 12 reviews
December 1, 2017
Books
How you loved to read in the snow and when your
face turned to water from the internal heat
combined with the heavy crystals or maybe it was
reversus you went half-blind and your eyelashes
turned to ice the time you walked through swirls
with dirty tears not far from the rat-filled river
or really a mile away—or two—in what
you came to call the Aristotle room
in a small hole outside the Carnegie library.
How you loved to read in the snow and when your
face turned to water from the internal heat
combined with the heavy crystals or maybe it was
reversus you went half-blind and your eyelashes
turned to ice the time you walked through swirls
with dirty tears not far from the rat-filled river
or really a mile away—or two—in what
you came to call the Aristotle room
in a small hole outside the Carnegie library.
December 4, 2012
http://marklindner.info/blog/2012/12/...
Another book I grabbed off of the new books shelves at Deschutes Public Library. I figured if it was written by an old guy with 17 other books of poetry under his belt and several awards, including a National Book Award, a National Jewish Book Award and a Wallace Stevens Award, he must be reasonably talented.
Talented? Perhaps. I had to force myself to read it from the very beginning. I cannot explain why I simply did not give up. Perhaps it was because I added it not just to Goodreads but to Open Library and Zotero (all my assorted documentation) at the start instead of at the end like usual, and when I did I sort of jokingly told myself it was so that I would finish it. Bah!
This may be great poetry and the author may be extremely talented. I could not stand it. It is basically stream of conscious run-on sentences that meander and loop back and abuse the reader’s sense of complex sentence structure. That is, he (except for one poem, I think) only ever uses a period at the end of a poem and the rest is full of commas and em dashes, mostly, along with semi-colons and the occasional colon. This I can do; I do it myself in my normal writing. But he also jumps to whole new clauses (really sentences!) in the middle of a clause with no punctuation or other indicator whatsoever. It truly is often stream of conscious writing.
It might be for you but I could not stand it. Still not sure why I forced myself to finish it; it would have been far simpler to remove it from my Open Library list and from Zotero.
I wrote the above at a bit past half way through as I wanted to get down what I was feeling and thinking about it.
The back half did improve some for me. There are a couple poems with more normal sentence structures and even a couple that that I liked. Here’s the one I liked the best:
Slow to Learn
Sarcasm came down on me like red dust and
contempt like the street lamps they lit after school
so we could find our way home in the dark.
I lived in fear that I would lose my colored bookmark and
shame at the laughter coming from the front seat of the Pontiac.
And I hate that I was the truest of all balloons
You beat for the sweet and delicate things inside.
But I’m fed up with bitterness
and I learned from Brecht that anger at injustice
makes your voice hoarse, and hatred of vileness
distorts your features, but I already knew it.
All in all, can’t say that I enjoyed it but perhaps you might. Perhaps I’ll look for one of his earliest works to see if his style has changed or whether it stayed pretty much the same.
Another book I grabbed off of the new books shelves at Deschutes Public Library. I figured if it was written by an old guy with 17 other books of poetry under his belt and several awards, including a National Book Award, a National Jewish Book Award and a Wallace Stevens Award, he must be reasonably talented.
Talented? Perhaps. I had to force myself to read it from the very beginning. I cannot explain why I simply did not give up. Perhaps it was because I added it not just to Goodreads but to Open Library and Zotero (all my assorted documentation) at the start instead of at the end like usual, and when I did I sort of jokingly told myself it was so that I would finish it. Bah!
This may be great poetry and the author may be extremely talented. I could not stand it. It is basically stream of conscious run-on sentences that meander and loop back and abuse the reader’s sense of complex sentence structure. That is, he (except for one poem, I think) only ever uses a period at the end of a poem and the rest is full of commas and em dashes, mostly, along with semi-colons and the occasional colon. This I can do; I do it myself in my normal writing. But he also jumps to whole new clauses (really sentences!) in the middle of a clause with no punctuation or other indicator whatsoever. It truly is often stream of conscious writing.
It might be for you but I could not stand it. Still not sure why I forced myself to finish it; it would have been far simpler to remove it from my Open Library list and from Zotero.
I wrote the above at a bit past half way through as I wanted to get down what I was feeling and thinking about it.
The back half did improve some for me. There are a couple poems with more normal sentence structures and even a couple that that I liked. Here’s the one I liked the best:
Slow to Learn
Sarcasm came down on me like red dust and
contempt like the street lamps they lit after school
so we could find our way home in the dark.
I lived in fear that I would lose my colored bookmark and
shame at the laughter coming from the front seat of the Pontiac.
And I hate that I was the truest of all balloons
You beat for the sweet and delicate things inside.
But I’m fed up with bitterness
and I learned from Brecht that anger at injustice
makes your voice hoarse, and hatred of vileness
distorts your features, but I already knew it.
All in all, can’t say that I enjoyed it but perhaps you might. Perhaps I’ll look for one of his earliest works to see if his style has changed or whether it stayed pretty much the same.
April 17, 2016
I really wanted to like this book... but I couldn't. I found Stern's word choice to interfere with the cadence of his images for me and each transition was less of a transition and more like a fall down a staircase. The poems that I did like included: Broken Pipes, Like Fools, Dumb, I Who Lifted a Car, Sugar, Two Graces, Spring, Domestic, Dream IV, Died in the Mills, Norman Riding, Independence Day, Broken Glass, Voltage, For D, Too Late, Love, Nietzsche, Counting, Day of Grief, and Bio III. That's a nice number, from the looks of it, but my overall feeling for the work (as the rating suggests) was not one of content. I hope others enjoy it more though!
April 9, 2022
I can't fathom the low rankings for this collection. Stern's lyrics are lucid fragments, as if overheard out of context by someone in another room.
September 2, 2016
This was tough to get through and it wasn't even long. I've long been a dedicated fan of Stern's poetry and, of course, still am, but this latest collection is just terrible. It just feels like he's got little left in the tank. The poems here have the patina of wordplay and magic and mystery which characterized Stern's previous work, but with rare exception, there's not much going on beneath that surface which resonates. With the exception of "Frogs," there aren't many poems here which I care to revisit.
Very disappointing.
Very disappointing.
June 24, 2022
With the Second reading of Gerald Stern, National Book Award winner, it becomes more apparent of the consuming fiery regal that In Beauty Bright holds as a collection of poetry. It’s lattice work of almost triptych like layering bleeds with effusions. Stern’s exemplary ken is definitely something to laud at. Creating a web-like sphere of enchantment. Definitely worth reading once-
January 29, 2014
I really couldn't get through this book. 'The Rose' is such a great poem. I can't believe it's the same guy that wrote this book. Other poems I've read plus the cover of this sold me, but I'm very disappointed.
January 31, 2013
Gerald Stern's poetry is puzzling but not difficult to read. He has won many awards including The National Book Award and is well worth reading. I heard him read several years ago, and my reading pleasure was increased by recalling the mischievous delivery of his poems then.
August 31, 2013
I could not connect with this book. The inside flap of the dust jacket calls the collection "poignant" and "urgent". Ruminative is a better word. The poems are clever, run-on sentences. They twist and turn in on themselves. There are no surprises. There is little music.
November 10, 2012
A first-class new collection by this celebrated poet. We lost Ginsberg, but we've still got Stern.
May 6, 2015
Ugh.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 12 reviews