Poems: A Selection

by Léonie Adams

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Trade Paper

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Léonie Fuller Adams (9 December 1899 – 27 June 1988) was an American poet. She was appointed the seventh Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1948.

Superficially, Léonie Adams' style did not change greatly over her lifetime, but there was an initial shy wonder at the world that eventually became an intense and almost devotional lyricism. Her rich descriptions demonstrate great delicacy of perception and an exalted spirit. She bears comparison with Henry Vaughan and 17th century metaphysical poetry, especially in her near-religious ecstasy. In a recent critical commentary for the WOM-PO (Discussion of Women's Poetry) website, poet Annie Finch provides a more postmodern reading of Adams as "a lush, sensual poet who directed her sensuality not towards other people but primarily towards the materials of poetry, towards syntax and symbol, diction and word-sound, in short, towards the language itself," and goes on to say that "Adams' poetry teases the balance between the incantatory and representational powers of poetic language. She uses the sounds of language as counterweights to her poems' ostensible meanings, complicating the act of reading and calling into question a reader's emotional responses."

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Aloysiusi Lionel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poetry of Leonie Adams has a twofold task: to mystify the functions of the forces of nature in man's search of meaning and purpose, and to entice the reader in the pursuit (plus struggle) of what's there in sonnets and stanzas, whatever plays between words and enjambments. Reading this book (a compilation Adams herself devised) makes one ponder that the poetry rooted in the splendor of Elizabethan era and evolving by the times is poetry he can remember well in mind and by heart. I did not appreciate the poetics when I read the first ten poems. But later on, I was hooked by the magic of rhymes, a magic elevating the English language to expression's endless possibilities.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed but not my favorite

[Hannah]

This was a gift from a friend. Enjoyable and solid poems.