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The Gods of Winter
Poems discuss a journey across the ocean, a veterans' cemetery, money, an abandoned collection of dolls, and a man who escapes from his prison cell to commit a murder.
- GenresPoetry
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
2 people are currently reading
128 people want to read
About the author
Dana Gioia
172 books118 followersDana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet. Former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Gioia is a native Californian of Italian and Mexican descent. He received a B.A. and a M.B.A. from Stanford University and an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. (Gioia is pronounced JOY-uh.)
Gioia has published four full-length collections of poetry, as well as eight chapbooks. His poetry collection, Interrogations at Noon, won the 2002 American Book Award. An influential critic as well, Gioia's 1991 volume Can Poetry Matter?, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, is credited with helping to revive the role of poetry in American public culture.
Gioia's reviews have appeared in many magazines including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Slate, and The Hudson Review. Gioia has written two opera libretti and is an active translator of poetry from Latin, Italian, and German.
As Chairman of the NEA, Gioia succeeded in garnering enthusiastic bi-partisan support in the United States Congress for the mission of the Arts Endowment, as well as in strengthening the national consensus in favor of public funding for the arts and arts education. (Business Week Magazine referred to him as "The Man Who Saved the NEA.")
Gioia's creation of a series of NEA National Initiatives combined with a wider distribution of direct grants to reach previously underserved communities making the agency truly national in scope. Through programs such as Shakespeare in American Communities, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, NEA Jazz Masters, American Masterpieces, and Poetry Out Loud, the Arts Endowment has successfully reached millions of Americans in all corners of the country.
The Big Read became the largest literary program in the history of the federal government. By the end of 2008, 400 communities had held month-long celebrations of great literature. Because of these successes as well as the continued artistic excellence of the NEA's core grant programs, the Arts Endowment, under Chairman Gioia, reestablished itself as a preeminent federal agency and a leader in the arts and arts education.
Renominated in November 2006 for a second term and once again unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Dana Gioia is the ninth Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Gioia left his position as Chairman on January 22, 2009. In 2011 Gioia became the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California where he teaches each fall semester.
Gioia has been the recipient of ten honorary degrees. He has won numerous awards, including the 2010 Laetare Medal from Notre Dame. He and his wife, Mary, have two sons. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County, California
Gioia has published four full-length collections of poetry, as well as eight chapbooks. His poetry collection, Interrogations at Noon, won the 2002 American Book Award. An influential critic as well, Gioia's 1991 volume Can Poetry Matter?, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, is credited with helping to revive the role of poetry in American public culture.
Gioia's reviews have appeared in many magazines including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Slate, and The Hudson Review. Gioia has written two opera libretti and is an active translator of poetry from Latin, Italian, and German.
As Chairman of the NEA, Gioia succeeded in garnering enthusiastic bi-partisan support in the United States Congress for the mission of the Arts Endowment, as well as in strengthening the national consensus in favor of public funding for the arts and arts education. (Business Week Magazine referred to him as "The Man Who Saved the NEA.")
Gioia's creation of a series of NEA National Initiatives combined with a wider distribution of direct grants to reach previously underserved communities making the agency truly national in scope. Through programs such as Shakespeare in American Communities, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, NEA Jazz Masters, American Masterpieces, and Poetry Out Loud, the Arts Endowment has successfully reached millions of Americans in all corners of the country.
The Big Read became the largest literary program in the history of the federal government. By the end of 2008, 400 communities had held month-long celebrations of great literature. Because of these successes as well as the continued artistic excellence of the NEA's core grant programs, the Arts Endowment, under Chairman Gioia, reestablished itself as a preeminent federal agency and a leader in the arts and arts education.
Renominated in November 2006 for a second term and once again unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Dana Gioia is the ninth Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Gioia left his position as Chairman on January 22, 2009. In 2011 Gioia became the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California where he teaches each fall semester.
Gioia has been the recipient of ten honorary degrees. He has won numerous awards, including the 2010 Laetare Medal from Notre Dame. He and his wife, Mary, have two sons. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County, California
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 6, 2014
I believe I've reviewed Dana Gioia on here before, so I'd like to avoid the gushing of affection I feel for this poet--except that I can't. Gioia is everything I love about poetry--meaningful statements artfully delivered. I understand that sometimes questioning meaning itself can be rewarding, but most pieces that attempt this create their meaning by studiously avoiding meaning--the point becomes "See I said nothing and that resonates!" And it can. When it's done right. But most of the time it's not done right and the structure and power of communication are abandoned for banality.
None of that here. Instead Gioia communicates clearly and profoundly with a truly beautiful ear for language. This collection has less rhyme than I remember from his other collections, but it is full of brilliant work. I loved so many of these poems. I tried listing the ones I'd particularly like and found myself typing so much of the table of contents that I gave it up as a bad job.
What I love about Gioia is that he avoids the trap of navel-gazing intentional obscurity. He communicates clearly, writing for an audience and not just for himself. It does not decrease the profundity of his work, it improves it. It improves the artistry as well, allowing the reader to understand how that simile, this metaphor, the alliteration in that line, the assonance in this are emphasizing the meaning of the work without a reader's guide or a professor to help elucidate.
Gioia reminds me of Robert Frost--apparently old hat. Apparently traditional to the point of being boring. But such statements could not be further from the truth. Frost famously compared writing free verse to playing tennis without a net. I don't entirely agree with him, but the abandonment of tradition and structure can only progress so far before one is lost with nowhere else to go and shocking is all that is left and even that has become blase. Gioia dares to mean: clearly, profoundly, and beautifully. I absolutely adored this book.
None of that here. Instead Gioia communicates clearly and profoundly with a truly beautiful ear for language. This collection has less rhyme than I remember from his other collections, but it is full of brilliant work. I loved so many of these poems. I tried listing the ones I'd particularly like and found myself typing so much of the table of contents that I gave it up as a bad job.
What I love about Gioia is that he avoids the trap of navel-gazing intentional obscurity. He communicates clearly, writing for an audience and not just for himself. It does not decrease the profundity of his work, it improves it. It improves the artistry as well, allowing the reader to understand how that simile, this metaphor, the alliteration in that line, the assonance in this are emphasizing the meaning of the work without a reader's guide or a professor to help elucidate.
Gioia reminds me of Robert Frost--apparently old hat. Apparently traditional to the point of being boring. But such statements could not be further from the truth. Frost famously compared writing free verse to playing tennis without a net. I don't entirely agree with him, but the abandonment of tradition and structure can only progress so far before one is lost with nowhere else to go and shocking is all that is left and even that has become blase. Gioia dares to mean: clearly, profoundly, and beautifully. I absolutely adored this book.
May 13, 2023
This is a new contender for one of my favorite volumes of poems. Mournful and celebratory.
December 27, 2022
This was quite enjoyable, I started it and didn't want to finish, so restarted a couple of times. "News From Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Homecoming were good albeit disturbing although in different ways. The Song (Rilke) and The Silence of the Poets were quite memorable. I like Gioia's rhythm. I've listened to him on YouTube as well and his voice fits that rhythm. Good stuff.
July 14, 2017
Bought for the catchy name: some of the poems were darker than I anticipated and left me unsettled.
December 31, 2022
Go read Gioia.
June 8, 2017
It would be unfair to Dana Gioa - and to my obscure and slightly crumpled self - to term this a real review. I read "The Gods of Winter" several times, many years ago now. It is on my rereading list, and I have no qualms about recommending it. Mr Gioia, as I recall, makes as good a case as you may find for the existence of 'Expansive Poetry'. The term isn't used as much nowadays. Dick Allen and a few others (Arthur Mortensen perhaps) tend to use it. Others, a subset of the Expansives according to Allen, prefer 'New Formalists' (or 'Neo-Formalists' if you like). The 'Baby's First Burp Is A Poemists' like to use expletives. Realise they are also convinced each and every one of their own burps is a poem. If you agree with them, Mr Gioia's work might not be for you. I say give him a chance, let him plant a sequoia.
March 9, 2017
Emotionally captivating
August 17, 2023
Very readable.
February 10, 2016
Really nice poetry. I like the three-stanza, unrhymzed, iambic pentameter thing he's got going on, especially in the longer, narrative poems. That's where he really shines, I think. He's got a very calm, almost unpoetic voice - it's not trying to be beautiful poetry, it's just sort of trying to tell a story. Which is why, I think, it works better for the narratives. "Counting the Children" gave me minor chills, whereas the language wasn't quite powerful enough to give most of the shorter poems a punch. Still, nice. Very easy to read. Calming, even the sadder stuff.
September 27, 2014
Was introduced to his poetry through Lauridsen's choral setting of Prayer, which is absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking. Several poems in this collection deserve repeated readings; especially enjoyed Night Watch, Rough Country, Cleared Away, and the ice cold Homecoming.
November 17, 2009
I got this signed at his CGU reading in October 09. It was a great event. He does most of his poems from memory. Overall, a very impressive man, and a wonderful book.
February 3, 2014
Met Mr Gioia and figured I should read some of his work.
Brief review: http://chickenshavenomyths.com/blog/2...
Brief review: http://chickenshavenomyths.com/blog/2...
March 26, 2014
I really enjoyed this one. Many memorable poems here.
January 8, 2015
Wonderful stuff.
June 17, 2016
I actually prefer this collection of poems overall to those of Interrogations at Noon, Gioia's more recent work. Perhaps because these ones are more raw. I like storms and angry weather.
January 27, 2017
The poems around losing a child and the growth of a murderer were especially effective.
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July 11, 2024I like Gioia. I am still learning poetry. I’m attracted to his idea of “the new formalism.”
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews