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Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2005
Considered by many to be among the most outstanding of living American poets, Alice Notley has amassed a body of work that includes intimate lyrics, experimental diaries, traditional genres, the postmodern series, the newly invented epic, political observation and invective, and the poem as novel. This chronological selection of her most notable work offers a delineation of her life and creative development. Formerly associated with the second generation of the New York School, Notley has become a poet with a completely distinctive voice. Grave of Light is a progression of changing forms and styles--an extensive panorama held together explicitly by the shape of the poet's times. Notley's poems challenge their subjects head-on, suffusing language with radiant truth.
388 pages, Hardcover
First published September 18, 2006
22 people are currently reading
576 people want to read
About the author
Alice Notley
85 books224 followersAlice Notley was an American poet. Notley came to prominence as a member of the second generation of the New York School of poetry—although she always denied being involved with the New York School or any specific movement in general. Notley's early work laid both formal and theoretical groundwork for several generations of poets; she was considered a pioneering voice on topics like motherhood and domestic life.
Notley's experimentation with poetic form, seen in her books 165 Meeting House Lane, When I Was Alive, The Descent of Alette, and Culture of One, ranges from a blurred line between genres, to a quotation-mark-driven interpretation of the variable foot, to a full reinvention of the purpose and potential of strict rhythm and meter. She also experimented with channeling spirits of deceased loved ones, primarily men gone from her life like her father and her husband, poet Ted Berrigan, and used these conversations as topics and form in her poetry. Her poems have also been compared to those of Gertrude Stein as well as her contemporary Bernadette Mayer. Mayer and Notley both used their experience as mothers and wives in their work.
In addition to poetry, Notley wrote a book of criticism (Coming After, University of Michigan, 2005), a play ("Anne's White Glove"—performed at the Eye & Ear Theater in 1985), a biography (Tell Me Again, Am Here, 1982), and she edited three publications, Chicago, Scarlet, and Gare du Nord, the latter two co-edited with Douglas Oliver. Notley's collage art appeared in Rudy Burckhardt's film "Wayward Glimpses" and her illustrations have appeared on the cover of numerous books, including a few of her own. As is often written in her biographical notes, "She has never tried to be anything other than a poet," and with over forty books and chapbooks and several major awards, she was one of the most prolific and lauded American poets. She was a recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.
Notley's experimentation with poetic form, seen in her books 165 Meeting House Lane, When I Was Alive, The Descent of Alette, and Culture of One, ranges from a blurred line between genres, to a quotation-mark-driven interpretation of the variable foot, to a full reinvention of the purpose and potential of strict rhythm and meter. She also experimented with channeling spirits of deceased loved ones, primarily men gone from her life like her father and her husband, poet Ted Berrigan, and used these conversations as topics and form in her poetry. Her poems have also been compared to those of Gertrude Stein as well as her contemporary Bernadette Mayer. Mayer and Notley both used their experience as mothers and wives in their work.
In addition to poetry, Notley wrote a book of criticism (Coming After, University of Michigan, 2005), a play ("Anne's White Glove"—performed at the Eye & Ear Theater in 1985), a biography (Tell Me Again, Am Here, 1982), and she edited three publications, Chicago, Scarlet, and Gare du Nord, the latter two co-edited with Douglas Oliver. Notley's collage art appeared in Rudy Burckhardt's film "Wayward Glimpses" and her illustrations have appeared on the cover of numerous books, including a few of her own. As is often written in her biographical notes, "She has never tried to be anything other than a poet," and with over forty books and chapbooks and several major awards, she was one of the most prolific and lauded American poets. She was a recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 28, 2008
slow at first, i didn't think i was going to be able to get into it, but then her mind must have been blown. . .and long poems like "at night the states", "beginning with a stain", "white phosphorus" i read over and over and with impatience. loved! became inspired, to fling open.
April 22, 2017
My bible.
January 12, 2024
Favorite poems:
Dear Dark Continent
You
The Goddess Who Created This Passing World
In the Dark I
Beginning with a Stain
White Phosphorus
If there's change you put it into this sculpture's slot
Dear Dark Continent
You
The Goddess Who Created This Passing World
In the Dark I
Beginning with a Stain
White Phosphorus
If there's change you put it into this sculpture's slot
October 23, 2023
« Poetry
Is totally bad for the brain. » (12/20)
Is totally bad for the brain. » (12/20)
December 9, 2008
How can one not love Alice Notley, or cherish any opportunity to read her work? Unfortunately, after a long wait to get my hands on this collection, I was disappointed by how slight it felt, particularly in regards to her earlier material. While the Penguin books are still in wide circulation, those rare, small-press editions are what we rely on a volume like this to provide, and we get too small a taste of them here.
March 12, 2019
I love it when Alice Notley gets specific and clear. I love her reflecting on that embarrassing thing she said when she was drunk, or condemning war, or writing a mythic journey through the underworld that takes place in subway tunnels. There is nothing better than those poems. I was a little sad to find so much of her poetry here is vague, flying away at every angle, confusing. I think I respect her wild-dreaming process, but the poems I most love are her most grounded.
January 18, 2016
Incredible array of poems in this large volume of Notley's work. She has such a distinct voice. Formerly associated with the second generation of The New School, Notley's poetry stands the testament of time.
September 3, 2008
Amazing scope, and I love that it's organized by year of composition rather than year of publication, an especially handy guide given poems' tendency to appear in multiple volumes.
July 9, 2018
Finished this a few days ago. Alice Notley is a mysterious tomb. Filled with modern-day epics, Notley's poetry feels like falling through the rabbit hole. Once you make it to the other side, words become foliage, building a dark, lush, forest before your eyes. There is a complexity in Notley's work I have never been able to access, though with time and travel I expect these poems to make more sense.
July 24, 2025
Notley’s work always was always enwrapped in such an enchanting mysticism it’s hard to imagine she approached death with anything but a sturdy sense of readiness. Every one of her poems are heavy and churn on the soul that’s leaves you with a deep tightness that you’ll have to reckon with. Rest in peace to my goat
January 13, 2024
Poetry in motion! Moving and inspiring start to finish.
March 25, 2025
love amazing awesome
April 15, 2023
This is my favorite book for right now. I would really recommend it to everyone. It’s an easy read. What it does is beyond anything else. I really like the style and acquaintance of it. And its rhymes make more sense. It makes the bleeding lines naked to the eye, and its grungy style reminds me of 90s cartoons. It is really a product of its time. My favorite poem was “Past-time”. Some other favorites were “Making It” and “Freedom Lines”. Remember to rate it on the way out. Don’t waste your time!
June 14, 2008
I didn't read this cover to cover, but I gained a sense of Notley's poetics. In that a lot of her work consists of book-length, cross-genre poem/novels, it's hard to take this selection as much more than a sketch of what she's up to and how she's progressed and changed. She's heavily influenced by Gertrude Stein and Ted Berrigan, and imagining her as a hybrid of those two wouldn't be at all an injustice. Likewise, it describes her limited appeal and the difficulty of her work. When things work - and by things I mean irregular capitalization and punctuation, intricate disregard of syntax and form, stream of consciousness technique, prose poetry, self-effacement and self-referentiality, a concern with absence and transience - it's still just not as rewarding as other poets who address these things in a less sprawling and indulgent manner. There is a somewhat incantatory immediacy and ghostly quality to the persona that emerges in her work, but often it just doesn't seemed worked or worthy of the sheer volume of the output.
January 22, 2016
oh my GOD. i jumped into this from Benediction bc i wanted to see what alice notley had been up to prior to benediction and boy am i glad i did. really great selection of poems, interesting + cool to see development of voice and experimentation with this technique and that over time while the interests are all still so sharp and There. like REALLY GOOD. REALLY GOOD. i cried at some poems in it. i wanna get a copy and keep it by my bedside.
June 16, 2012
A semi-colon is a semi-precious garnet cluster / telegram (54)
my / skirt fill empties and fills with / cooling air (64)
Things that / Might be found in a pill bottle include a tiny photograph. (94)
This kind pine has clusters of needles at end of smaller branches of branch, like glossy little whisk brooms. (118)
The problem of / America is my body. (146)
** Homer's Art **
my / skirt fill empties and fills with / cooling air (64)
Things that / Might be found in a pill bottle include a tiny photograph. (94)
This kind pine has clusters of needles at end of smaller branches of branch, like glossy little whisk brooms. (118)
The problem of / America is my body. (146)
** Homer's Art **
April 21, 2017
She has always been one of the most fascinating poets. Pushing form to accomplish magic. This book is her collection of selected poems. from 1970 to 2005--a must read
August 19, 2008
Alice is my very favorite poet and is featured in the next issue of my magazine The PR.
March 5, 2016
each star is a piece ofv my soul. super love.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews