Poetry Books
American Smooth: Poems
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Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
Author: Rita Dove
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $11.16
You Save: $ 2.79 ( 20% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
Author: Rita Dove
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Average Customer Rating:
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American Smooth: Poems Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780393327441
ISBN: 0393327442
Label: W. W. Norton
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 112
Publication Date: 2006-02-13
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Studio: W. W. Norton
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780393327441
ISBN: 0393327442
Label: W. W. Norton
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 112
Publication Date: 2006-02-13
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Studio: W. W. Norton
Editorial Review of American Smooth: Poems
"Rita Dove pulls the ultimate dance trick: she makes it look easy."—New York Times Book Review
An occasion to celebrate: a new collection by the Pulitzer Prize-winning former poet laureate—her first since On the Bus with Rosa Parks. With the grace of an Astaire, Rita Dove's magnificent poems pay homage to our kaleidoscopic cultural heritage—from the glorious shimmer of an operatic soprano to Bessie Smith's mournful wail; from paradise lost to angel food cake; from hotshots at the local shooting range to the Negro jazz band in World War I whose music conquered Europe before the Allied advance. Like the ballroom-dancing couple of the title poem, smiling and making the difficult seem effortless, Dove explores the shifting surfaces between perception and intimation.
An occasion to celebrate: a new collection by the Pulitzer Prize-winning former poet laureate—her first since On the Bus with Rosa Parks. With the grace of an Astaire, Rita Dove's magnificent poems pay homage to our kaleidoscopic cultural heritage—from the glorious shimmer of an operatic soprano to Bessie Smith's mournful wail; from paradise lost to angel food cake; from hotshots at the local shooting range to the Negro jazz band in World War I whose music conquered Europe before the Allied advance. Like the ballroom-dancing couple of the title poem, smiling and making the difficult seem effortless, Dove explores the shifting surfaces between perception and intimation.
Customer Reviews of American Smooth: Poems
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: No wonder she was Poet Laureate!
Review: If ever there were the slightest doubt as to why Rita Dove is a former Poet Laureate, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and lots of other great things for a poet (particularly a poet these days!) to be, AMERICAN SMOOTH squelches that doubt like a bug at a barbecue. Whether she's writing of Negro doughboys in World War One as they face the issue of Race, along with the other horrors of war, or Salome or Saint Valentine, her pen celebrates her subject with subtle wit and with the incising scalpel-like insight which is the core of the Poet's craft. For this reviewer, the best poems here are those that deal with jazz and dance themes and skillfully utilize those rhythms. The poem about Hattie McDaniel (Mammy from Gone with the Wind) going to her Oscar party is also an absolute delight. Dove's exquisite and perspicacious wit also shines in her selection of quotes from Star Trek: Voyager's clever and charming Vulcan, Tuvok as section epigraphs. While Dove's voice is her own, careful listening and reading will reveal echoes of Denise Levertov, Adrienne Rich, and William Carlos Williams.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Rita Dove is Ok
Review: The book was ok it wasn't the best book i've ever read. I would say the book can put you to sleep a little. Most of the poems are good but if you are a teenage girl you wouldn't like the book. She could have did a better job with her description and characteristics. But throughout the book she just talked like she was in the olden days and it's 2006 she needs to write like it's 2006. Kids might get bored off of her book I know I did. Although I didn't like the book personally others might like it so just read it and you well see.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Rita Dove is Ok
Review: The book was ok it wasn't the best book i've evr read. I would say the book can put you to sleep a little. Most of the poems are good but if yo are a teenage girl you wouldn't like the book. She could have did a better job with her description and characteristics. But throughout the book she just talked like she was in the olden days and it's 2006 she needs to write like it's 2006. Kids might get bored off of her book i know i did. Although i didn't like the book personally others might like it so just read it and you well see.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Sweetest Word
Review: Rita Dove is a highly acclaimed poet and a former Poet Laureate of the United States with many accolades and honors. Her latest publication, AMERICAN SMOOTH, is a collection of forty-four poems infused with the history of World War I, the enjoyment of dancing, and issues of everyday life.
My favorite selections are "Meditation at Fifty Yards, Moving Target", which makes shooting a gun sound so poetic and "Heart to Heart" which downplays the myths one associates with the heart (shape and color), and all the cliches individuals use in terms of it (from the bottom of my heart), and breaks down what it really is (muscle) and what people need to keep it going (love).
Although I was not able to enjoy the collection in it's entirety, I enjoyed several of the poetic offerings similar to those mentioned above. Those that I did not identify with were well written, its just that I was not able to relate to those pieces, but that is the beauty of poetry, there is something for everyone.
Reviewed by Aiesha Flowers
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Thrilling Collection
Review: Dove's keen, deliberate voice in "American Smooth" is as brilliant as ever. In each poem, the gut-true, but never easy, illuminations of individual subject become gorgeous music. Dove masterfully evokes specific moments of joy and disappointment, beauty and carelessness, honor and neglect. The title, "American Smooth" refers, in part, to a form of ballroom dancing. These poems are just as lean and graceful and sophisticated as any great dancer's best moves. I want to go everywhere Rita Dove's work leads, because when I come back, I'm never quite the same.
Review Summary: No wonder she was Poet Laureate!
Review: If ever there were the slightest doubt as to why Rita Dove is a former Poet Laureate, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and lots of other great things for a poet (particularly a poet these days!) to be, AMERICAN SMOOTH squelches that doubt like a bug at a barbecue. Whether she's writing of Negro doughboys in World War One as they face the issue of Race, along with the other horrors of war, or Salome or Saint Valentine, her pen celebrates her subject with subtle wit and with the incising scalpel-like insight which is the core of the Poet's craft. For this reviewer, the best poems here are those that deal with jazz and dance themes and skillfully utilize those rhythms. The poem about Hattie McDaniel (Mammy from Gone with the Wind) going to her Oscar party is also an absolute delight. Dove's exquisite and perspicacious wit also shines in her selection of quotes from Star Trek: Voyager's clever and charming Vulcan, Tuvok as section epigraphs. While Dove's voice is her own, careful listening and reading will reveal echoes of Denise Levertov, Adrienne Rich, and William Carlos Williams.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Rita Dove is Ok
Review: The book was ok it wasn't the best book i've ever read. I would say the book can put you to sleep a little. Most of the poems are good but if you are a teenage girl you wouldn't like the book. She could have did a better job with her description and characteristics. But throughout the book she just talked like she was in the olden days and it's 2006 she needs to write like it's 2006. Kids might get bored off of her book I know I did. Although I didn't like the book personally others might like it so just read it and you well see.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Rita Dove is Ok
Review: The book was ok it wasn't the best book i've evr read. I would say the book can put you to sleep a little. Most of the poems are good but if yo are a teenage girl you wouldn't like the book. She could have did a better job with her description and characteristics. But throughout the book she just talked like she was in the olden days and it's 2006 she needs to write like it's 2006. Kids might get bored off of her book i know i did. Although i didn't like the book personally others might like it so just read it and you well see.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Sweetest Word
Review: Rita Dove is a highly acclaimed poet and a former Poet Laureate of the United States with many accolades and honors. Her latest publication, AMERICAN SMOOTH, is a collection of forty-four poems infused with the history of World War I, the enjoyment of dancing, and issues of everyday life.
My favorite selections are "Meditation at Fifty Yards, Moving Target", which makes shooting a gun sound so poetic and "Heart to Heart" which downplays the myths one associates with the heart (shape and color), and all the cliches individuals use in terms of it (from the bottom of my heart), and breaks down what it really is (muscle) and what people need to keep it going (love).
Although I was not able to enjoy the collection in it's entirety, I enjoyed several of the poetic offerings similar to those mentioned above. Those that I did not identify with were well written, its just that I was not able to relate to those pieces, but that is the beauty of poetry, there is something for everyone.
Reviewed by Aiesha Flowers
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Thrilling Collection
Review: Dove's keen, deliberate voice in "American Smooth" is as brilliant as ever. In each poem, the gut-true, but never easy, illuminations of individual subject become gorgeous music. Dove masterfully evokes specific moments of joy and disappointment, beauty and carelessness, honor and neglect. The title, "American Smooth" refers, in part, to a form of ballroom dancing. These poems are just as lean and graceful and sophisticated as any great dancer's best moves. I want to go everywhere Rita Dove's work leads, because when I come back, I'm never quite the same.