Poems

A major career-spanning collection from the inimitable Nobel Prize-winning poetFor the past fifty years Louise Glück has been a major force in modern poetry distinguished as much for the restless intelligence wit and intimacy of her poetic voice as for her development of a particular form: the book-length sequence of poems. This volume brings together the twelve collections Glück has published to date offering readers the opportunity to become immersed in the artistry and vision of one of the worlds greatest living poets.From the allegories of The Wild Iris to the myth-making of Averno; the oneiric landscapes of The House on Marshland to the questing of Faithful and Virtuous Night - each of Glücks collections looks upon the events of an ordinary life and finds within them scope for the transcendent; each wields its archetypes to puncture the illusions of the self. Across her work elements are reiterated but endlessly transfigured - Persephone a copper beech a mother and father and sister a garden a husband and son a horse a dog a field on fire a mountain. Taken together the effect is like a shifting landscape seen from above at once familiar and unspeakably profound. Review One of the purest and most accomplished lyric poets now writing -- Robert HassNo American poet writes better than Louise Glück perhaps none can lead us so deeply into our own nature -- Stephen DobynsIt is difficult to think of another living poet whose voice contains so much electrifying undercurrent whose rhythms are under such control but whose work is also so exposed and urgent. -- Colm Tóibín ―GuardianA tremendous poet ... Louise Glück has spent a lifetime showing us how to make language both mean something and hold everything -- Claudia Rankine ―GuardianPut together these compact volumes have a great novels cohesiveness and raking moral intensity. They display a supple and prosecutorial mind interrogating not merely her own life but also the sensual and political nature of the world that spins around it. . . . No other poet slices with such accuracy and deadly intent . . . Glück is fearless. -- Dwight Garner ―New York TimesGlück is among the most moving poets of our era . . . This voice is not going to go away. -- Dan Chiasson ―New YorkerAs with other great poets Glück does not invite paraphrase. Her poems at their best--and they are very often at their best--embody not just the rage to order but also the rage to identify a truth that no order can approximate or touch. -- Robert Boyers ―NationGlück is as important and influential a poet as we have in America . . . Glücks work is all edges . . . the sharper ones can inflict heavenly hurt where the meanings are. If you want to know about the last half-century of American poetry you need to read these poems. -- Michael Robbins ―Los Angeles Review of BooksYou read a passage by Glück and think Ah yes of course this is how it is. She has the extraordinary writers gift of making clear what is outside the world of her poem complex ... [and] a compassionate comprehensive vision of human understanding and destiny. Her poetry for all its huge distinction its vibrant intelligence and its beauty has never lost the ability to serve society or the reader. -- Fiona Sampson ―GuardianGlück is unparalleled in finding beauty in tribulation more so than any American poet since Emily Dickinson. -- David Biespiel ―The OregonianGlücks poems face truths that most people most poets deny ... A Glück book can seem both visceral and cerebral full of thought and full of grit and pith. If the earliest successes echoed Sylvia Plath the latest reach beyond American poetry to the melancholy generosity of Anton Chekhov the shifting perspectives of Alice Munro. -- Stephanie Burt ―GuardianGlücks voice is like no other in modern American poetry. Her poetic domain--like that of Wallace Stevens--lies in the seclu