The Late Romances

by Pankey, Eric

• ISBN13: 9780679766056
• ISBN10: 0679766057
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1999-01-01
• Publisher: Knopf

Summary

Eros presides over the operatic spectacle of these poems, and Melancholia over their ravenous clarity. The tragic and comic dispute a border, a margin that divides death from resurrection, separation from reunion, renunciation from celebration, and the spirit from the body. The poems themselves are pilgrimages back and forth between Eden and this green world. This new collection more than confirms what David Baker inThe Kenyon Reviewsaid in response to Pankey's last book: "He is outstanding among an emerging generation of talented and accomplished poets."

Author Biography

Eric Pankey was educated at the University of Missouri and the University of Iowa. His first book of poems, <b>For the New Year</b>, received the Academy of American Poets' Walt Whitman Award in 1984. His second book, <b>Heartwood</b>, was published in 1988 and his third, <b>Apocrypha</b>, in 1991. He has received grants from the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Fairfax, Virginia, where he teaches at George Mason University.

Table of Contents

Confession on the Island	p. 3
The Pear as One Example	p. 7
August Fugue	p. 8
Two Asides Beneath the New Moon	p. 9
In Heaven	p. 10
Tulip	p. 12
Don Giovanni in Hell	p. 13
Interlude	p. 19
June Vagaries	p. 20
The Pilgrimage of my Father's Ghost	p. 21
The Phrase of Thine Actions	p. 22
Details	p. 23
At the Wapsipinicon River	p. 24
To Christ our Lord	p. 25
Bric-a-brac	p. 26
The Kingdom Likened to a Field of Weeds	p. 27
Detail from "The Lamentation over the Dead Christ"	p. 28
The Grave of a Woman	p. 29
Study	p. 30
Fire	p. 31
Borgo Antico	p. 32
A Feast in Jerusalem	p. 33
Homage	p. 34
Prayer	p. 35
Beyond Alchemy	p. 36
Commedia	p. 41
Santo Spirito	p. 43
Two-Part Invention	p. 44
Lines in Memory of my Father: Ponte Santa Trinita	p. 45
Manifest Destiny	p. 48
World Enough	p. 49
The Crow's Complaint	p. 50
Savant of Birdcalls	p. 51
A Basket of Apricots	p. 52
After a Quarrel in Fiesole	p. 54
In Arcadia	p. 55
Testament	p. 56
Essays on a Lemon	p. 57
Melancholia	p. 58
Approaching Accademia: A Nocturne	p. 59
Prospero Returned from Exile	p. 60
Quartet	p. 61
Prospero Stays Home from Church	p. 63
For Now	p. 64
Prospero Takes his Morning Coffee with the Conspirators	p. 65
Sworn Deposition	p. 66
In Siena, Prospero Reconsiders the Marriage at Cana	p. 68
Nostalgia	p. 69
The Augury of Prospero	p. 70
Field of Vision	p. 71
The Dotage of Prospero	p. 72
Notes	p. 75
Acknowledgments	p. 76
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Above the terra cotta roofs, swallows dart,
Stitching together the gathered dust of day.

At dawn, humidity hangs like a hive.
How surprised we are to find we live here,

Here within our bodies. The air, downswept,
Is fragrant: soot, sweat, spikes of lavender;

The unrestored light gold and aquamarine.
All is known and tenuous. Tenuous and known.

Bells. Then afterward, the quiet after bells.
Our bodies are not hidden, but revealed

Before the spirit of whom we are guests.
Revived, we hold each other and we rest.

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Excerpted from The Late Romances by Eric Pankey
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.