Before the Brave

by Kenneth Patchen

Excerpt from Before the Brave

Genres: Poetry

131 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Kenneth Patchen was an American poet and novelist. He experimented with different forms of writing and incorporated painting, drawing, and jazz music into his works, which have been compared with those of William Blake and Walt Whitman. Patchen's biographer wrote that he "developed in his fabulous fables, love poems, and picture poems a deep yet modern mythology that conveys a sense of compassionate wonder amidst the world's violence." Along with his friend and peer Kenneth Rexroth, he was a central influence on the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat Generation.

Reviews

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Первый сборник 1936 года. Преимущественно гражданская лирика протеста — ей, разумеется в значительной мере наследовал потом Гинзбёрг и в какой-то период — Леонард Коэн (в «Энергии рабов»). Классовая пролетарская лирика (с кивками в сторону Кремля) у Пэтчена гораздо талантливее, чем у бессчетных демьянов-бедных, — попросту потому, что это поэзия, а другое — нет. Пэтчен шкурой ощущал это свое «мы», ему было за что и ради чего возвышать таким пафосом голос. Все это очень искренне, в отличие от. У советских поэтов — сплошь фальшак из-под палки, искренние интонации стали возникать у «истинно-верующих» разве что позже, уже у шестидесятников, и то не у всех. Но в 30-х советского поэта с таким накалом высказывания представить трудно.

[Gage Hoefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

With a rage and a righteousness that is hard not to be swept up by- a lightning bolt.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Youthful, loving and angry- Patchen's first book of poems was published when he was 25 and set the political tone from which the poet would deviate in later years. Here Patchen's works are filled with observations about the passage of time and the little-difference man makes but to squander life. Before the Brave is not however steeped in moody states of puerile contrariness but rather comes from a real love of life and a profound understanding of the capacity for good that Man has but also the brutal and astonishing failures he is wont to bring about.