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Finding My Elegy: New And Selected Poems (2012)

by Ursula K. Le Guin(Favorite Author)

3.89 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0547858205 (ISBN13: 9780547858203)

languge

English

genre

Poetry

publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

review 1: The Best of the Beginning and the Latest Poetry from Ursula Le Guin"Finding My Elegy" is a literary celebration of Ursula Le Guin's decades-long oeuvre in poetry, demonstrating that she is as much a master of this genre as she is of speculative fiction and fantasy. If nothing else, this relatively slim volume should demonstrate her considerable range and talent as a poet, drawing originally from the fantastical realms conjured in her "Ekumen" and "Earthsea" novels and stories, and then, later, drawing on subjects as diverse as her longstanding love of nature and her intensely felt commentary on social and political affairs both here in the United States and abroad.One of my favorite poems, her ode to the great classical singer Ian Bostridge, demonstrates the intense richne... moress and the elegant simplicity of her literary craft:Lieder SingerTo Ian BostridgeHe stands by the piano, tall and leanin black, unsmiling. His hands are tense.Men are unlikely instruments.A piano too, a strange awkward thing.He looks out through the audiencewaiting for the accompanist to beginthe running rolling subtle Schubert tuneHis gaze changes as he starts to sing.Now he sees nothing. Is he seen?Where is he now in these long-drawn laments.these soft rejoicings in a summer dawn?Like Echo hidden near the hidden spring,unbodied to music, he consentsto be nothing but voice, the rest is gone.
review 2: The World and Living in Retrospect and In Present ObservationFor those unfamiliar with this impressive poet, `Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (born October 21, 1929) is an American author of novels, children's books, and short stories, mainly in the genres of fantasy and science fiction. She has also written poetry and essays. First published in the 1960s, her work explores alternative imaginings of sexuality, religion, politics, anarchism, ethnography, and gender. She is influenced by central figures of Western literature, including feminist writers like Virginia Woolf, and also by modern fantasy and science fiction writers, Norse mythology, and books from the Eastern tradition such as the Tao Te Ching. In turn, she has influenced Booker prize winners and other writers, such as Salman Rushdie and David Mitchell-- and notable futurism and fantasy writers like Neil Gaiman and Iain Banks. She has won various awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award multiple times.'This book of poems spans from 1960 to the present and reveals the artist as a seer, observer, reformer, pacifist, naturalist, and humorist - each descriptor meant in the highest of compliments. A read cannot step away form Le Guin's poetry without be at once dazzled and moved. The opening poem, an early one isSONGO when I was a dirty little virginI'd sit and pick my scabby kneesand dream about some man of thirtyand doing nothing did what I pleased.A woman gets and is begotten on,have and receive is feminine for live.I knew it, I knew it even then:what after all did I have to give?A flowing cup, a horn of plentyfulfilled with more the she can hold,but the milk and honey will be empted,emptied out, as she grows old.More inward than sex or even womb,inmost in woman is a girl intact,the dirty little virgin who sits and dreamsand has nothing to do with fact.Two pacifist poems follow:HERE, THERE, AT THE MARSHThe papers are full of war andmy head is full of the anguish of battlesand ruin of ancient cities.In the rainy light a great blue heronlifts and flies above the brown cattailsheavy, tender, and pitiless.THE NEXT WARIt will take place,it will take time,it will take life,and waste them.But Le Guin can sing songs more gently, recalling hues of the past as in:SEVEN LINES TO ELISABETHCome back my daughter and make me anothermild posole, two anchos but no jalapeños.Play Bach on the cello. Make me a motheragain as you did many years ago now.Reawaken the old house with music and tears.Whatever you do, always do it wholly.O child come back, make me another posole.The poetry of Ursula K Le Guin is in toto an elegy for one of the more sensitive, outspoken, and important poets of our time. This is a rich book of works that must be read. Grady Harp less

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