Poetry Books
Glare
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Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Author: A. R. Ammons
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $25.00
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Author: A. R. Ammons
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Average Customer Rating:
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Glare Description
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780393040968
ISBN: 0393040968
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 294
Publication Date: 1997-07
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780393040968
ISBN: 0393040968
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 294
Publication Date: 1997-07
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
Editorial Review of Glare
A new long poem from one of America's greatest and most honored living poets. Glare comprises two superb parts by the contemporary master of this form: "Strip" and "Scat Scan." It demonstrates, yet again, why A. R. Ammons's poetic voice is a national treasure: by turns cosmic, self-inflating, self-deflating, eloquent, intimate, bawdy, comic, precise and always unmistakably his own.
Customer Reviews of Glare
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: idiosyncratic brilliance
Review: Here this master of the book-length poem constructs a long poem different from other long poems of his, at the height of his command over poetics. This is a book of thoughts; he prefers the word in a conceptual space over the word as image. He also has a crazy sense of humor. Sections of this long poem are sectioned into very small units, & the form of 2-line stanzas is almost (but not quite) constanr throughout the book. The poems move as you would imagine the sphere on the cover would roll -- with a steady, hard arcing sound. I don't know this for sure yet, but I have a feeling Ammons liked associating his poetry with spheres so much because spheres are the shapes with the greatest surface area to volume ratio, & his words are just as voluminous in their terseness. In other news, his poetry in this book is its own very exciting avant-garde. Until his death on 25 Feb, 2001, more & more throughout his life, he was always creating wholly new spaces for poetry to move through. This his last book keeps moving.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: climax of genius
Review: The writing in this book all bears Ammons's mark of experimental, architectonic genius. He writes with severe intellect & a kooky sense of humor. He tends to prefer abstract thinking to emotion or physical objects or location. Gripping read.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Spectacular vistas (democratic visas)
Review: Ammons was a master of the concise lyric, the witty aphorism, and the unusual nature narrative: a dialogue between a man and a mountain, for example. But he shines in his long poems, his book-length poems, of which "Glare" is the final example. The poem enacts the workings of an expansive supple probing ever-restless mind as it turns over all that comes at it centripetally as if it occupied the center of the universe. In a sense he did that as well as any American poet since Robert Frost. That is one measure of his greatness. There are others in the glare of mourning.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Squinting at brilliance
Review: Incredibly it's really difficult to find A. R. Ammons poetry in bookshops in the UK. As far as I know his work isn't actually published here & so enthusiasts have to rely on specialist shops or on ordering his books (from internet bookstores or elsewhere). I first came across his worksevseral years ago in an anthology of American verse - & I've been hooked ever since. 'Glare' is a spectacular display of Ammon's deceptively easy-looking conversational style. Confident, funny, disarmingly direct, it touches on the wonderful & terrible business of living & growing old. The language is razor edged & playfully fuzzy - in exactly the right places & amounts. The long poem (of which 'Glare' is a very special example) has tripped-up many a gifted poet, but this has the sustained brilliance of someone competely at home with the form, someone who knows how to set poetic pace & rhythm to fit the task in hand. On a more commonplace note, it's a very engaging read. A book you can dip in & out of or settle down with. A book full of sparkiling wit, occasional glittering nuggets of wisdom, old-geezerish grumbling, rambling, ranting & poetry that will 'lift the top of your head off' as someone once said. He should be in the shops here. U.K. publishers please note.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Can't rate this book
Review: There are more insights into language and life on any given page of this book than any poet has pulled off since, maybe, Auden. And I like Archie better than Auden. I agree with Harold Bloom: this poem is probably immortal.
Review Summary: idiosyncratic brilliance
Review: Here this master of the book-length poem constructs a long poem different from other long poems of his, at the height of his command over poetics. This is a book of thoughts; he prefers the word in a conceptual space over the word as image. He also has a crazy sense of humor. Sections of this long poem are sectioned into very small units, & the form of 2-line stanzas is almost (but not quite) constanr throughout the book. The poems move as you would imagine the sphere on the cover would roll -- with a steady, hard arcing sound. I don't know this for sure yet, but I have a feeling Ammons liked associating his poetry with spheres so much because spheres are the shapes with the greatest surface area to volume ratio, & his words are just as voluminous in their terseness. In other news, his poetry in this book is its own very exciting avant-garde. Until his death on 25 Feb, 2001, more & more throughout his life, he was always creating wholly new spaces for poetry to move through. This his last book keeps moving.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: climax of genius
Review: The writing in this book all bears Ammons's mark of experimental, architectonic genius. He writes with severe intellect & a kooky sense of humor. He tends to prefer abstract thinking to emotion or physical objects or location. Gripping read.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Spectacular vistas (democratic visas)
Review: Ammons was a master of the concise lyric, the witty aphorism, and the unusual nature narrative: a dialogue between a man and a mountain, for example. But he shines in his long poems, his book-length poems, of which "Glare" is the final example. The poem enacts the workings of an expansive supple probing ever-restless mind as it turns over all that comes at it centripetally as if it occupied the center of the universe. In a sense he did that as well as any American poet since Robert Frost. That is one measure of his greatness. There are others in the glare of mourning.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Squinting at brilliance
Review: Incredibly it's really difficult to find A. R. Ammons poetry in bookshops in the UK. As far as I know his work isn't actually published here & so enthusiasts have to rely on specialist shops or on ordering his books (from internet bookstores or elsewhere). I first came across his worksevseral years ago in an anthology of American verse - & I've been hooked ever since. 'Glare' is a spectacular display of Ammon's deceptively easy-looking conversational style. Confident, funny, disarmingly direct, it touches on the wonderful & terrible business of living & growing old. The language is razor edged & playfully fuzzy - in exactly the right places & amounts. The long poem (of which 'Glare' is a very special example) has tripped-up many a gifted poet, but this has the sustained brilliance of someone competely at home with the form, someone who knows how to set poetic pace & rhythm to fit the task in hand. On a more commonplace note, it's a very engaging read. A book you can dip in & out of or settle down with. A book full of sparkiling wit, occasional glittering nuggets of wisdom, old-geezerish grumbling, rambling, ranting & poetry that will 'lift the top of your head off' as someone once said. He should be in the shops here. U.K. publishers please note.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Can't rate this book
Review: There are more insights into language and life on any given page of this book than any poet has pulled off since, maybe, Auden. And I like Archie better than Auden. I agree with Harold Bloom: this poem is probably immortal.