Oblivion banjo : the poetry of Charles Wright

Oblivion banjo The poetry of Charles Wright

Charles Wright, 1935-

Book - 2019

"Over the course of his work--more than twenty books in total--Charles Wright has built "one of the truly distinctive bodies of poetry created in the second half of the twentieth century" (David Young, Contemporary Poets). Oblivion Banjo, a capacious new selection spanning his decades-long career, showcases the central themes of Wright's poetry: "language, landscape, and the idea of God." No matter the precise subject of each poem, on display here is a vast and rich interior life, a mind wrestling with the tenuous relationship between the ways we describe the world and its reality. The recipient of almost every honor in poetry--the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Bollingen Prize, to name a few-...-and a former poet laureate of the United States, Wright is an essential voice in American letters. Oblivion Banjo is the perfect distillation of his inimitable career--for devout fans and newcomers alike."--Publisher's website.

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Subjects
American poetry > 20th century.
American poetry > 21st century.
Poetry.
Genres
Poetry
Published
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux [2019]
Language
English
Main Author
Charles Wright, 1935- (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
754 pages ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 731-736) and index of titles and first lines.
ISBN
9780374251017
  • from Hard Freight (1973)
  • from Bloodlines (1975)
  • from China Trace (1977)
  • from The Southern Cross (1981)
  • from The Other Side of the River (1984)
  • from Zone Journals (1988)
  • from Xionia (1990)
  • from Chickamauga (1995)
  • from Black Zodia (1997)
  • from Appalachia (1998)
  • from North American Bear (1999)
  • from A Short History of the Shadow (2002)
  • from Buffalo Yoga (2004)
  • from Scar Tissue (2006)
  • Littlefoot (2007)
  • from Sestets (2009)
  • from Caribous (2014)
Review by Booklist Review

Early in this exquisite assembly of selected poems from Wright's prodigious output, 16 collections between 1973 and 2014, this four-line gem appears in ""Signature,"" from China Trace (1977): Don't wait for the snowfall from the dogwood tree. / Live like a huge rock covered with moss, / Rooted half under the earth / and anxious for no one. Wright's poems illuminate the subtleties and wonderment of our world in calm exaltations. ""Cicada,"" from Chickamauga (1995), is a metaphysical examination of the self, of human longing, of our relationship with the earth: Fills us in ways we can't lay claim to, / Ways immense and without names, / husk burning like amber . Few poets can seize the passing of time as Wright does, and give it a shape that we might comprehend. In Caribou (2014), ""Ancient of Days"" paints an image: To stand like Turner's blobbed figurines / In a landscape we do not understand, / whatever and everything . One may lose track of self and time within Wright's radiant poems, trusting that this great poet, this holder of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and many other honors, might help us hear our own language, decipher our own feelings, as if for the first time.--Raúl Niño Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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