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Selected poems
Provides an overview of Hollander's career with selections from eleven previous volumes of poetry published between 1958 and 1988
- GenresPoetry
64 pages, Hardcover
First published April 6, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
trying-out
March 14, 2025Tentative impression, 3/14/25:
WTF, Powers of Thirteen. Although I do find poetry writing under formal constraints (including the English language’s Big Two, rhyme and meter) an admirable pursuit, the constraint used in this sub-book seems to have no effect whatsoever on the experience of reading it beyond “okay, these poems are all approximately the same length”. Am I supposed to go through all 169 of its poems under the emotion of simply being impressed by the exact same abstract fact of what their constraint is? Selected Poetry’s first poem, “Harp Lake”, constructed of stanzas inspired by the Malay pantun form, is majestic by comparison.
WTF, Powers of Thirteen. Although I do find poetry writing under formal constraints (including the English language’s Big Two, rhyme and meter) an admirable pursuit, the constraint used in this sub-book seems to have no effect whatsoever on the experience of reading it beyond “okay, these poems are all approximately the same length”. Am I supposed to go through all 169 of its poems under the emotion of simply being impressed by the exact same abstract fact of what their constraint is? Selected Poetry’s first poem, “Harp Lake”, constructed of stanzas inspired by the Malay pantun form, is majestic by comparison.
August 1, 2013
In this selected poems, the "Powers of Thirteen" section contains all the poems from that now sometimes hard to find book of the same title. And it truly is mind boggling....Hollander's focused, unrelenting attention, control, and lyrical language in these poems is impressive beyond words: consisting of 169 (13 squared) poems, each of 13 lines, with 13 syllables in each line.
Overall, this Selected Poems proves that Hollander is an important, riveting and careful poet...a master of form and one who will surely endure the test of time.
Overall, this Selected Poems proves that Hollander is an important, riveting and careful poet...a master of form and one who will surely endure the test of time.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews