All the Night Wings: Poems

by Loren Eiseley

Book by Loren Eiseley

Genres: Poetry

111 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Loren Corey Eiseley (September 3, 1907 – July 9, 1977) was a highly respected anthropologist, science writer, ecologist, and poet. He published books of essays, biography, and general science in the 1950s through the 1970s.

Eiseley is best known for the poetic essay style, called the "concealed essay". He used this to explain complex scientific ideas, such as human evolution, to the general public. He is also known for his writings about humanity's relationship with the natural world; these writings helped inspire the modern environmental movement.

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have loved this small volume of poetry since my high school days, nearly twenty years ago. It was my friend Genevieve who introduced me to Loren Eiseley, and I have ever been grateful. His poetry is lean, wind-swept, and raw. A few favorite lines:

"Desires as fierce as hunger, one by one / They all grow still, like old hawks in the sun."

"Be a mocker at love: I shall sleep with fire when I sleep."

"That love so gives itself, uncaring though none taste at all."

"...some furry little sin as recompense."

I have learned to lean bravely into the cold wind with Loren Eiseley's wisdom pounding in my head. A scientist-poet ought not to be such a rarity.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best of Eiseley's poetry collections. This one consists of rhyming poetry for the most part, while the other collections I've read by him have been free verse. Perhaps the constraints of the rhyme helped with the focus of the works, although the other collections were by no means weak. The copy I have had some mistakes in the printing, however, with poems placed oddly on the page at some points. All in all, a very fine work. If you like poetry about nature I'd highly recommend it.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a re-read for me. I began reading Eiseley’s works in the 1970’s when my mother, my sister and I bought and passed around his books. This one was one of my mother’s. It was a pleasure to read it again and re-visit which words she had underlined and some of the notes she had made on the pages. I do love his anthropology/natural science writings the best, but this is a commendable collection of poetry. Many of the poems were obviously written late in his life and are somber and almost gritty.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his collection of poems that range contemplative to observational and philosophical to introspective, Loren Eiseley marries the eye of a natural scientist with the heart of a tender man aware of his mortality yet expressing awe for the miracles and marvels of the world.

While asymmetrical in style and sophistication, I grant five stars because too few poets since the revelations of modern science fully confront their implications on the life of the soul and the place of man relative to nature, however one might define those imperfect catch-all terms.

That Eisley, evidently educated by his wide-ranging allusions, approaches his poems with that earnestness and self-awareness is worthy of a nod.

And as the adage goes, quantity becomes quality, so credit too his practice of writing which yields some gems of language and resonant insight among material that other critics might toss away.

For example, in "Oxford, I Think":

"And where are your professional publications?"
remarked a don from Oxford one morning, where / such conversation
is considered an art as knife-throwing.
"I am just learning," I said with malice and swung my books
with the schoolboy strap.

And from "The Inheritors":

Call it the truth of asphalt,
call it the truth of the parking lot, / but it is still
the truth of rain and crows.

And from "Song without Logic":

The honey of chaos is the honey of love.

#

The reader gets the impression of Eiseley crouching alone in the dusty interface between human society and the natural world observing the birds, mammals, fish, and insects with a notebook in hand.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loren Eiseley published three volumes of poetry during the latter part of his life, and over the course of his life he also contributed poems to various journals and magazines. All the Night Wings is a collection mostly of these poems, collected here posthumously in book form in 1979. His work is cut from the same cloth as his essays; brooding, insightful, lyrical.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

One example of his work--

Brief Song

Seeing how earth is dark
And this -- our treacherous star--
Is hurtling to eclipse
However far,

Seeing the bravest song,
Will mix with leaf and rain
And very soon be lost
Nor come again,

Seeing the nail that bit
Through Christ's arm tortures mine,
That vinegar's to drink,
The same old wine,

I think that coward's best,
Who, from a tightened noose,
Swings while the swift pulse fails
And life's abuse.

Unless it be that man
Who learns to lean upon
Thirst as his iron drink
Before it's gone.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, poignant, and shuddering poems about life, love, and death in the context of nature. I love this volume and find myself rereading it every so often, or just pulling it off the shelf to find a specific poem.

[Mark Puterbaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonder full.