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The Shadow Of Sirius (2008)

by W.S. Merwin(Favorite Author)

4.19 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1556592841 (ISBN13: 9781556592843)

languge

English

genre

Poetry

publisher

Copper Canyon Press

review 1: Merwin at times at his best, with poems about childhood memories, loss, mortality and the resonance of a natural moment. Wisdom hangs at times in the spaces that emerge along words that fore and aft connect ideas within his practically patented short lines and extended run-on sentences. But in a book-length collection his reliance on that formula also occasionally takes on the air of a conceit stretched too thin. Similarly, a poem's heat always depends to some measure on what is at stake and for Merwin the fallback position of death or mystery props up some poems that seem contrived. Still, in the end poems like "Blueberries After Dark," "Inheritance," "Youth," "Another Dream of Burial," "A Letter to Sun-Tun-p'o," "The Long and the Short of It," "Nocturne," "To Paula in La... morete Spring," "White Note," "Remembering the Ring" and the especially exceptional "A Ring" and "Recognitions" make this book finally a thing of art and tender beauty.
review 2: The poems here I like best are the ones with some context, so I dont' feel lost in his swirl of yricism. The ones that involve people are particualrly grounded. It seems to help to attach identity to someone, even if there is just a figure or name. There are more than a few moments here of true beautiy in his language--simple, beautiful, unexpected. His weakest moments seem more telling than showing. Not a bad read, but not my favorite book of his that I have read. less

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