Here is my most recent piece in Curator: "In Praise of the Book." In this article, I recommend the reading of entire poetry books cover-to-cover, something I have started doing recently and which is a very edifying experience. Hope you enjoy this little piece and maybe take its advice. If you do, or if you are already an avid reader of complete poetry books, perhaps you can leave me a comment here telling me which volume you recommend? I'm especially interested in young contemporary American poets. Thank you.
~ Sørina
2 comments:
The first book of poetry I read all the way through was George Herbert's The Temple where the arrangement of adjacent poems is very significant. There is intertextuality between poems in the collection, and you miss out on this if you read the poems in isolation. Also the structure of the book is meant to parallel that of a church building. It starts with The Church-porch, then enters The Church (with "The Altar" as its first poem, followed by "The Sacrifice").
The only other book of poems I've read all the way through is my mother's Realer than Real, Harder than Hard. I own a whole bookshelf worth of poetry books, but I haven't read any of them all the way through. Not even any of Luci Shaw's short ones, I confess. I'm mostly a dabbler. But you've inspired me to try.
Rosie: I don't think I've read "The Temple" all the way through; thanks for the reminder. Yes, great choice; that one sure is designed for cover-to-cover reading. I think I read your Mom's all the way through, and I think I've read Luci Shaw's "The Green Earth." But I need to read more contemporary books, and am getting better at doing that. :)
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