Collected Poems, 1916-1970

by Conrad Aiken

Makes available all the published verse written by him since 1953, in addition to the full body of his poetry written up to that time.

Genres: Poetry, Unfinished, American

1064 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Known American writer Conrad Potter Aiken won a Pulitzer Prize of 1930 for Selected Poems .

Most of work of this short story critic and novelist reflects his intense interest in psychoanalysis and the development of identity. As editor of Selected Poems of Emily Elizabeth Dickinson in 1924, he largely responsibly established her posthumous literary reputation. From the 1920s, Aiken divided his life between England and the United States and played a significant role in introducing American poets to the British audience.

He fathered gifted writers Joan Aiken and Jane Aiken Hodge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_...

Reviews

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aiken’s themes: Music - rhythms and forms; Freud - kaleidoscopic images of the unconscious; Philosophy - romantic ideas extend to modernist chaos.

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume includes all of his poetry, notably "The Divine Pilgrim", "Brownstone Eclogues", and others. Aiken's earliest poetry was written partly under the influence of a beloved teacher, the philosopher George Santayana. This relation shaped Aiken as a poet who was deeply musical in his approach and, at the same time, philosophical in seeking answers to his own problems and the problems of the modern world. Aiken was deeply influenced by symbolism, especially in his earlier works. In 1930 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Selected Poems. Many of his writings had psychological themes. My favorites of his poems include the stanzas entitled "Preludes for Memnon". These are philosophical poems on the theme of change.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over 1000 pages of poems by this noted author. Could spend years reading and thinking about these poems.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

6/4/18 I'm conflicted because I didn't like a good deal of it, but some of the poems I did read I love. They seem like what I always want from poetry but almost never find.

"IT is morning, and in the morning
When the light drips through the shutters like the dew,
I arise, I face the sunrise,
And do the things my fathers learned to do.
Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops
Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die,
And I myself on a swiftly tilting planet
Stand before a glass and tie my tie.
. . .
"The green earth tilts through a sphere of air
And bathes in a flame of space.
There are houses hanging above the stars
And stars hung under a sea. . .
And a sun far off in a shell of silence
Dapples my walls for me. . .

"It is morning. I stand by the mirror
And surprise my soul once more;
The blue air rushes above my ceiling,
There are suns beneath my floor. . ."