Charles Simic: Essays on the Poetry

by Bruce Weigl (Editor)

Charles Simic, recently named Poet Laureate of the United States, is one of America's most popular---and enigmatic---contemporary poets. Set apart from his contemporaries by a particularly inclusive and worldly vision, his is a poetic voice singular in our time for its quality of empathy, for its imagination-enriched logic, and for its deep and abiding clarity. In Charles Essays on the Poetry the perspectives of a range of critics, poets, and scholars (including James Atlas, William Matthews, Liam Rector, Helen Vendler and Diane Wakoski, among others) are brought together in an attempt to offer an appraisal of his art. The book traces the critical reception to Simic's poetry, beginning with the earliest responses, and reveals a constantly changing image of the relationship between the poet and his work. Essays and book reviews from sometimes radically different points of view address the body of Simic's verse and attempt to delineate the aesthetic from which his art emerges. Charles Essays on the Poetry concludes with an extended interview and a selection of Simic's autobiographical writings. Books by Charles Simic available from the University of Michigan Bruce Weigl is author of thirteen collections of poetry, most recently Declension in the Village of Chung Luong , editor of three collections of critical essays, and translator of three books of poetry from the Vietnamese and two from the Romanian. In 2006 he was awarded the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry. A volume in the Under Discussion series.

Genres: Poetry

233 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Mohammed omran · Rating 2 out of 5]

كم يعمل الموت،

لا أحد يعرف كم هو طويل

اليوم الذي يعمل فيه. الزوجة

الشابة دائما وحدها

تكوي ملابس الموت.

البنات الجميلات

يضعن عشاء الموت على المائدة.

الجيران يلعبون

البيناكل في الفناء الخلفي

أو يجلسون فقط على السلالم

يشربون البيرة. الموت،

في ذات الوقت، يبحث في جزء

غريب من المدينة عن

شخص مصاب بسعال سيء،

لكن العنوان بطريقة ما يكون خاطئا،

حتى الموت لا يمكنه تميزه

من بين كل الأبواب المغلقة ..

ومع بداية تساقط المطر.

ليلة طويلة عاصفة آتية.

ليس مع الموت حتى صحيفة

يغطي بها رأسه، ولا حتى

عشرة سنتات للاتصال بالمتلهف البعيد،

الذي يتعرى ببطء، ناعس

ثم يتَمَطَّئ عاريًا

فوق جانب الموت من السرير.

…….

[Mitchell McInnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simic is the master of the short essay. Truly an original. He's managed to spend
his life in academia without falling prey to academic frailties.

[Jen Maidenberg]

Really good and easy reading of criticism on poetry and through this book I discovered Mark Strand whose poetry I am smitten by