Poetry Books
Elephant Rocks: Poems (Grove Press Poetry Series)
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Manufacturer: Grove Press
Author: Kay Ryan
Publisher: Grove Press
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $14.04
You Save: $ 3.96 ( 22% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Author: Kay Ryan
Publisher: Grove Press
Average Customer Rating:
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Elephant Rocks: Poems (Grove Press Poetry Series) Description
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780802115867
ISBN: 0802115861
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 84
Publication Date: 1996-03-07
Publisher: Grove Press
Studio: Grove Press
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780802115867
ISBN: 0802115861
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 84
Publication Date: 1996-03-07
Publisher: Grove Press
Studio: Grove Press
Editorial Review of Elephant Rocks: Poems (Grove Press Poetry Series)
A third collection of verse by the author of Strangely Marked Metal and Flamingo Watching presents a new collection of original, quirky, and provocative poetry.
Customer Reviews of Elephant Rocks: Poems (Grove Press Poetry Series)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Just Beautiful
Review: I had to stop reading this book on the bus because it caused me to blubber like a baby! Ms. Ryan's words pour into your soul like water, filling you up and spilling over your face. Seldom does a writer have such a command over both sound and sense--that's what makes her a true poet. And, like the best poetrty, this book should be enjoyed in a quiet, intimate environment, read aloud to the one you love best. An absolutely wonderful book.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Witty, Edgy, Beautiful
Review: I loved this book. Kay Ryan's poems are very short, but they pack so much ambiguous meaning in a few lines. They're quite unusual among contemporary poetry: epigrammatic, terse, very accessible, almost light verse, but with shadows flickering all around. I give this book to friends who say they "don't get modern poetry" and that modern poetry makes them feel stupid. If you like Stevie Smith or the short verses of Robert Frost, you'll love Elephant Rocks. Here's a short one, called "Silence":
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Kay Ryan is the best poet now at work in America.
Review: Once every couple of generations, an original thinker manages to refresh an art form that had seemed exhausted. Kay Ryan has done this with poetry. Her poems rhyme--but not in the ways and places you expect. They're metrical--but only according to the author's own quirky standard. They're short, tight, and disciplined--and yet they allow language to sprawl and luxuriate. Best of all, they're musical. Not a single one of them bounces along in a stanzaic quatrain the way a traditional lyric would; instead, these poems are densely packed, with beautiful interior rhymes and echoes chiming away in a miniature space.
Review Summary: Just Beautiful
Review: I had to stop reading this book on the bus because it caused me to blubber like a baby! Ms. Ryan's words pour into your soul like water, filling you up and spilling over your face. Seldom does a writer have such a command over both sound and sense--that's what makes her a true poet. And, like the best poetrty, this book should be enjoyed in a quiet, intimate environment, read aloud to the one you love best. An absolutely wonderful book.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Witty, Edgy, Beautiful
Review: I loved this book. Kay Ryan's poems are very short, but they pack so much ambiguous meaning in a few lines. They're quite unusual among contemporary poetry: epigrammatic, terse, very accessible, almost light verse, but with shadows flickering all around. I give this book to friends who say they "don't get modern poetry" and that modern poetry makes them feel stupid. If you like Stevie Smith or the short verses of Robert Frost, you'll love Elephant Rocks. Here's a short one, called "Silence":
Silence is not snow./ It cannot grow/ deeper. A thousand years/ of it are thinner/ than paper. so/ we must have it/ all wrong/ when we feel trapped/ like mastodons.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Kay Ryan is the best poet now at work in America.
Review: Once every couple of generations, an original thinker manages to refresh an art form that had seemed exhausted. Kay Ryan has done this with poetry. Her poems rhyme--but not in the ways and places you expect. They're metrical--but only according to the author's own quirky standard. They're short, tight, and disciplined--and yet they allow language to sprawl and luxuriate. Best of all, they're musical. Not a single one of them bounces along in a stanzaic quatrain the way a traditional lyric would; instead, these poems are densely packed, with beautiful interior rhymes and echoes chiming away in a miniature space.
One final paradox: Although these poems are not confessional (they do not contain personal remembrances, hurts, or hopes), they gradually reveal an intensely individual mind--a lucid, generous, and humorous one.
In my opinion Kay is the best, most beautiful poet working in the English language today. She has quietly reinvented rhyming poetry according to her own peculiar--but very logical--rules. I consider her best poems to be miraculous.
In admiration,
Henry Rathvon