The First Four Books of Poems

by Louise Glück

The fierce, austerely beautiful voice that has become Glück's trademark speaks in these poems of a life lived in unflinching awareness. Includes "Firstborn", "The House on Marshland", "Descending Figure", and "The Triumph of Achilles".

Genres: Poetry, Mythology, Literature, Female Authors, 20th Century, Nonfiction, American

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1990

About the author

American poet Louise Elisabeth Glück served as poet laureate of the United States from 2003 to 2004.

Parents of Hungarian Jewish heritage reared her on Long Island. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and later Columbia University.

She was the author of twelve books of poetry, including: A Village Life (2009); Averno (2006), which was a finalist for The National Book Award; The Seven Ages (2001); Vita Nova (1999), which was awarded The New Yorker's Book Award in Poetry; Meadowlands (1996); The Wild Iris (1992), which received the Pulitzer Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award of the Poetry Society of America; Ararat (1990), which received the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress. She also published a collection of essays, Proofs and Theories: Essays on Poetry (1994), which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction.

In 2001, Yale University awarded Louise Glück its Bollingen Prize in Poetry, given biennially for a poet's lifetime achievement in his or her art. Her other honors include the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Sara Teasdale Memorial Prize (Wellesley, 1986), the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1993 for her collection, The Wild Iris . Glück is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award ( Triumph of Achilles ), the Academy of American Poet's Prize ( Firstborn ), as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Anniversary Medal (2000), and fellowships from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 2020, Glück was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."

Glück also worked as a senior lecturer in English at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, served as a member of the faculty of the University of Iowa and taught at Goddard College in Vermont. She lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and teached as the Rosencranz writer in residence at Yale University and in the creative writing program of Boston University.

Reviews

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Louise Glück for a long time, but was never able to articulate why I liked her writing so much. And then I met someone who had also read a great deal of Glück's poetry, and she said, "I like her work because it penetrates." I've never found a better description of the effect her writing has on me. It penetrates.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gluck's poetry focuses on emotions living just below a tranquil domesticity. Many of these poems seem angry or resentful of isolation within a relationship, but the language is moving enough to make each stanza evoke empathy. Through it all is the theme of mature love and what it means to maintain a relationship over time. Gluck contrasts the movement of seasons and nature with phases of love and home-life, monogamy and adultery (spiritual, if not physical) and inevitable reconciliation.

Technically, I love her work. The language is clear and unadorned. Her cadences move you through each piece effortlessly, and control the read very tightly. She'll slow your pace at just the right moment; it's like reading a "stinger" note from a movie score sometimes.

A great collection.

[Cindy Tebo · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Louise Gluck's, "The First Four Books of Poems," it is interesting to see her progression as a poet. In the early poems, she experiments with rhyming, line breaks, and punctuation. She seems to have hit her stride in the later works. In those, she relies more on personal mythologies, dreams, and imagery.

That said, I struggled to find a connection with many of these poems. However, there were some notable exceptions.

From the, "The House on Marshland," collection is a poem called, "Here Are My Black Clothes." Gluck immediately draws the reader in with, "I think now it is better to love no one/than to love you. Here are my black clothes..."

The speaker of the poem casts off her dark clothing. This becomes her ex-lover's inheritance. Do the black clothes symbolize mourning? If so, she'e over it. Instead, she seems to be celebrating her depature from the black cloak of a stifling relationship.

"Late Snow" was my favorite from the "Firstborn" collection. A woman is growing older as is the season. She is lovingly caring for her husband. He seems to have gone back in time to his infancy. He can no longer walk and makes "gurgling" noises. She administers to him as though she were his mother, pushing him forward in his wheelchair even though it hurts her legs to do so. It's a very poignant poem.

Another poignant poem, "Metamorphosis," is in the book, "The Triumph of Achilles." The speaker of the poem is talking about the death of her father.

She mentions the spot on her father's lung that was always there. The "spot" is symbolic of everyone's mortality not just the speaker's father. At first, she watches her father from a distance--how her mother interacts with him. This changes to the sorrow that her father has forgotten her. In the last segment, she is touching her father with the warmth of her hand against the coldness of his death. The speaker's "metamorphosis" is complete.

The last poem I want to mention is also found in, "The Triumph of Achilles." It's entitled, Marathon. I didn't relate to the entire poem except for the second section, "Song of the River."

It seems as though two lovers are lost in themselves. They are happily walking "parallel" to the river. They have no sense of progression which becomes a metaphor for their own mortality.

The trees change and they are moving forward in time without the memory of time's passage. The river, however, is progressing as symbolized by the child's boat floating past the lovers. Its sail "is stained by water." The couple is linked by the moment and yet, parallel to each other as they are to the river.

Although people travel together, each person's journey is separate. The poem's deep reflections come to an abrupt end as they approach other couples ahead who are buying souvenirs.

This collection is definitely worth reading to see Gluck's progression. I just wish there were more poems I could relate to on a more personal level.

[prashant · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘the hills are far away. they rise up blacker than childhood. what do you think of, lying so quietly by the water? when you look that way i want to touch you, but do not, seeing as in another life we were of the same blood’ AAAAAAHHHHHH

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars, rounded up.

Louise Glück is a former Poet Laureate and winner of both the Pulitzer and the Nobel Prize. So I knew that when I embarked on my year of poetry, she definitely had to be includes. As the title states, this book collects her first four published books of poetry in one bind-up. I found it very interesting to follow her career from the very beginning, and to see how her style changed and solidified as she grew into her own voice. I’m not a huge fan of this type of blank free verse, as I tend to gravitate towards poetry with a meter and rhythm I can hear in my mind, but that’s a personal preference. Her work grew on me as I progressed further into her career.

There were quite a few pieces in the final portion of this collection, The Triumph of Achilles, that I quite enjoyed. Some of these were “Baskets,” “The Reproach,” and “A Parable.” Something I’ve realized about myself as a reader of poetry is that I’ll always appreciate works that are retellings or inspired in some way by a myth or a folktale or an actual historical event, which I think is why this last book of poems in the collection resonated more with me than the first three. While I didn’t enjoy the entire collection as much as I had hoped to, I do very much respect Glück’s work, and it’s easy to see why she’s so lauded. I’d be interested to read some poetry from later in her career to compare to these.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t read a great deal of poetry since leaving university lo these many years ago, but this collection of the first four books published by the late Nobel-winner reminded me why I loved it. Interesting to watch her skill and assurance in her craft grow as the years pass (if I’m remembering correctly, the poems cover about 20 years), from early experimentation with form, cadence, etc., into a smoother fluidity over time. And always an arresting image or concept.

[Eliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glück will always be one of my favorite poets. :’) Of the four books in this collection, “The Triumph of Achilles” was my favorite.

[Dylan CC · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is how to put small words into big empty places. it is an influence because it becomes the sounds you hear in your head. it is an old instrument played in a sad way a few rooms away.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gahering and republishing the award-winning poet's first books (i.e., Firstborn: Poems, The House on Marshland, Descending Figure, and Triumph of Achilles) in one collection is a great opportunity to watch her growth as her poet. She is particularly good at visiting mythology and imbuing it with humanity. Highly recommended.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

“of two sisters one is always the watcher, one the dancer” (tango)

“there is always something to be made of pain” (love poem)

“the darkness lifts, imagine, in your lifetime” (the undertaking)

“there is a soul in me it is asking to be given a body” (gemini)

“when you look that way i want to touch you, but do not, seeing as in another life we were of the same blood” (the pond)

“it is i, love, back in living color after all this years” (my life before dawn)

“you must have known, then, how i wanted you. we will always know that, you and i. the proof will be my body” (marathon: 3. the encounter)

[K.C. Bratt-Pfotenhauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glück has always been one of my favorite poets, and for me, the best thing about this collection was seeing her progression throughout her first four books. Each of them is so unique, but my favorite would be "Descending Figure."

[wormy ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"and you never say
leave me
since the dead do not like being alone"

[Hayden Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

only took me 5 years to read!

[moamorcilla]

favorites: gretel in darkness, the mirror, the return, seated figure, the triumph of achilles, metamorphosis

[Mouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[A. Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm, I'd like to revisit this, especially her book The Triumph of Achilles.

From Marathon:
"6 THE BEGINNING
I had come to a strange city, without belongings:
in the dream, it was your city, I was looking for you.
Then I was lost, on a dark street lined with fruit stands.

There was only one fruit: blood oranges.
The markets made displays of them, beautiful displays—
how else could they compare? And each arrangement has, at its center,
one fruit, cut open.

Then I was on a boulevard, in brilliant sunlight.
I was running; it was easy to run, since I had nothing.
In the distance, I could see your house; a woman knelt in the yard.
There were roses everywhere; in waves, they climbed the high trellis.

Then what began as love for you
became a hunger for structure: I could hear
the woman call to me in common kindness, knowing
I wouldn't ask for you anymore—

So it was settled: I could have a childhood there.
Which came to mean being always alone."

[SA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because I wanted to familiarize myself more with Gluck after being blown away by The Wild Iris. This collection is very much a reflection of early, less skilled work; in a way it's fascinating to watch her slow progression to the themes and structures that reflect her mature works. But most of the time my eyes were at best scanning the verse, trying to get through each poem and keep moving forward.

It's a handy volume, though, as many of the early books are now out of print apart from this collection.

[Kylle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Glück’s poetry is like watching a short, experimental film for the first time. I didn’t understand a lot of it, although it didn’t allow my mind to stop illustrating the imagery in my head.

I resonated with the latter pieces more than the early ones, hearing more from a writer trying to tell someone something than one whispering words into the sea. Like many poetry books, it was like reading letters not meant for me — like I was searching for a message that wasn’t ever there.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's very enlightening to see LG's progression as a poet over the course of her first book collections. I didn't think much of her work at first, but by the third and fourth books, I was really getting into the poems. There is a lot that can be learned from approaching this book as an artistic historical object.

[Erica French · Rating 5 out of 5]

These words....from one poem to the next took me places I've been before but forgotten, reminded me of things I've felt and misplaced....lines that burst out of the page and poem, thoughts that led to more of my own thoughts...too good too read just once.

[Maja · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't say that I like a single one of Louise Glück's poems. Like is somehow an entirely wrong word to express my feelings about them. Disquiet? Vague fear? Reading her poetry feels like seeing shadows dancing at the edges of your vision that you cannot make sense of. She writes about death, about grief, about loss (of love, of children, of security). You could not put a single poem from her first four books into an anthology like "Poems that make you happy". And yet she is undeniably good at what she is trying to express, even if it is often hard for me to grasp at what exactly that is.

The Drowned Children

You see, they have no judgment.
So it is natural that they should drown,
first the ice taking them in
and then, all winter, their wool scarves
floating behind them as they sink
until at last they are quiet.
And the pond lifts them in its manifold dark arms.


But death must come to them differently,
so close to the beginning.
As though they had always been
blind and weightless. Therefore
the rest is dreamed, the lamp,
the good white cloth that covered the table,
their bodies.

And yet they hear the names they used
like lures slipping over the pond:
What are you waiting for
come home, come home, lost
in the waters, blue and permanent.


Grandmother in the Garden

The grass below the willow
Of my daughter's wash is curled
With earthworms, and the world
Is measured into row on row
Of unspiced houses, painted to seem real.

The drugged Long Island summer sun drains
Pattern from those empty sleeves, beyond my grandson
Squealing in his pen. I have survived my life.

The yellow daylight lines the oak leaf And the wire vines melt with the unchanged changes
Of the baby. My children have their husbands' hands.
My husband's framed, propped bald as a baby on their pianos,
My tremendous man. I close my eyes. And all the clothes I have thrown out come back to me, the hollows
Of my daughters' slips... they drift; I see the sheer
Summer cottons drift, equivalent to air.

[Peacejanz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last year, Louise Gluck was awarded the Nobel Literature Prize - a great honor for three reasons. First, she is a US citizens and we need anything that is good to brag about with out president and covid both damaging us. Secondly, she is a woman. More men that women win Nobel prizes. Thirdly, she is a poet and they rarely win the Nobel prize. When I heard that she won, I realized that I had never really studied her poetry, which has won many prizes through the years, but I have just read one of her poems here and there. I was lucky enough to find this volume which has her first four books of poetry in one book. So I have been reading it, a couple of poems at a time. Her work is quite deep - one has to think about her poetry to get the meaning and I admit I did not always understand but some poems are touching. I did not realize she was such a feminist. She writes a lot about nature, love, lust, death. There is a lot of dark, night imagery, sometimes lost on me. But she can be witty also. In her third book, one poem is titled, "The fear of love." The following poem is titled, "The fear of death." There are also lovely phrases such as, "How much beauty can a person bear?" Another phrase is universal, "It isn't easy to want so much." This is a wonderful book that I will go back to many times. The ideal would be to sit in an advanced poetry class and listen to discussion and have the professor explain some of the references. Hooray for Louise Gluck! A wonderful book that will be read over and over.

[David Dunlap · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was self-recommending after its author won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature. True confession: I am not very fond of modern (contemporary) poetry -- much of the time, I simply do not understand it. Such was the case with many of the works in this volume, which compiles (perhaps a bit embarrassedly, to judge from the author's brief comments at the outset) the first four collections of Louise Gluck's work. Nevertheless, I found a number of the poems very good indeed -- and I was much taken by the sharpness of the poet's imagery and her brilliant turns of phrase. Lovers of poetry, especially that being written in our times, need not hesitate!

[Liv Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this collection randomly at a bookstore without knowing anything about the author. It was immediately a great surprise. At first, I found it domestically frustrating, similar to some Plath, and then it got sexier. Her poetry became more playful and "what if my life was" kind of fantasying while towing a steady line of moody darkness. And while also being smart and only a few well placed references/recreations of very old literature. It checked more boxes than I expected and hope to reread again in several years.

[agenbiteofinwit · Rating 3 out of 5]

raw but not polished, it became a collection of poems that seem so shriekingly immature to those of Glück's latter works. thematically it is slightly voided and too focused on the young imaginations and holograms of marriage and the perceivable horrid that arises. the rest is a mixture of myths (in introductory level) and feelings that didn't dwell well to me. it seems flat at times and void of essence. Glück's flair in poetry, though, is very well present throughout the collection, which is how some of the poems still click for me.

[Idriss Jellyfish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, the parables are a trip, the narrations take interesting twists, and the love she has towards others in her life mirror the level of self examination in the poems. Most poems somehow reminded me of someone from my childhood, the memories are described vividly enough to do so, with intense attention paid to small details such as dust, mild fragrances, and the absence of leave-rustling wind. All in all, an evocative delight.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glück's imagination is rich and supple when turned loose on classical themes (Pomegranate, Triumph Of Achilles) and the universal topics of sex, mortality, and solitude. What bind the poems together are Glück's economy of language and her capacity - this is hard to describe - to jostle or stir a reader at depth.

[Megan RFA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty annoyed with myself for having not read Gluck at length before now. What strange and beautiful poetry. This collection crafts a striking world half blended with myth and shuddering with the uncanny. I'm intrigued and want to read her entire body of work.

[Zeinab Issa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 actually. Really interesting introduction to Glück and her style, tho some poems did feel a bit unpolished here and there. Really enjoyed The house on the marshland and Descending figure. Was deeply touched by some parts, and glanced through other. Decent collection to start with nonetheless!

[laure]

i've decided to dnf everything i'm reading at the moment that isn't school-related because i've reached a point where reading five poetry at the same time is making me hate these otherwise amazing collections... so i shall see you soon, louise glück!!