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Next-to-Last Things: New Poems and Essays
A selection of poems and essays by the noted writer.
- GenresPoetry
130 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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About the author
Stanley Kunitz
85 books80 followersStanley Jasspon Kunitz was an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress twice, first in 1974 and then again in 2000.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 23, 2015
This book was far from what I tend to pick up, but I really loved it. For me, it was the kind of book that you read slowly, bit-by-bit, not the gripping-must-reach-the-end type. Stanley Kunitz has a practiced awareness of the natural world and the flow of his poetry seems almost instinctive. I was especially surprised by how much I enjoyed the essays, mostly for the scattered lines that leave you in a puzzled awe as they make sense of things you didn't think you could articulate or didn't think to try. Many of his personal anecdotes, in both his essays and interview, were enjoyable to read, taking the simplest situations and finding the complexity beneath them.
I'll leave some of my favorite lines below:
The object is not so much to cut oneself off from one's past as to learn how to live with the child you were.
We have to learn to live with our frailties. The best people I know are inadequate and unashamed.
One day I was out there and I climbed--oh, it was a triumph!--almost to the top. And then I couldn't get down. I couldn't go up or down. I just clung there that whole afternoon and through the long night. Next morning the police and fire department found me. They put up a ladder and brought me down. I must say my mother didn't appreciate that I was inventing a metaphor for poetry.
The popular impression is that [scientists'] metaphors are real and the poet's metaphors are unreal.
We have to make our living and dying important again.
Anyone who forsakes the child he was is already too old for poetry.
Paustovsky's comment on the early days of the Bolshevik Revolution: "Events took place so quickly that you missed half of them by sleeping." That is the way I've always felt, even without the excuse of a revolution, and why I insist on staying awake each night until I fall apart.
Lastly, I'll leave my favorite of the poems here: Passing Through
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/...
I'll leave some of my favorite lines below:
The object is not so much to cut oneself off from one's past as to learn how to live with the child you were.
We have to learn to live with our frailties. The best people I know are inadequate and unashamed.
One day I was out there and I climbed--oh, it was a triumph!--almost to the top. And then I couldn't get down. I couldn't go up or down. I just clung there that whole afternoon and through the long night. Next morning the police and fire department found me. They put up a ladder and brought me down. I must say my mother didn't appreciate that I was inventing a metaphor for poetry.
The popular impression is that [scientists'] metaphors are real and the poet's metaphors are unreal.
We have to make our living and dying important again.
Anyone who forsakes the child he was is already too old for poetry.
Paustovsky's comment on the early days of the Bolshevik Revolution: "Events took place so quickly that you missed half of them by sleeping." That is the way I've always felt, even without the excuse of a revolution, and why I insist on staying awake each night until I fall apart.
Lastly, I'll leave my favorite of the poems here: Passing Through
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/...
August 5, 2008
This is a nice mix of Kunitz's poetry and some of his essays. I very much enjoyed the interspersion of the two.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews