Carnival Evening New and Selected Poems 1968-1998

by Pastan, Linda

• ISBN13: 9780393319279
• ISBN10: 039331927X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-08-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• More Book Details

Summary

This volume brings together new work along with poems gathered from nine previous collections. When Linda Pastan's first book was published in 1971, the Jerusalem Post wrote, she "in large measure fulfilled Emerson's dream '” the revelation of 'the miraculous in the common.' " Since then Pastan has continued to explore the complexities, passion, and dangers under the surfaces of ordinary life. "Some critics point to Emily Dickinson when citing Pastan's lapidary style and metaphysical wit, a comparison that does justice to either poet when Pastan is at her best." '” Gettysburg Review   "Pastan's unfailing mastery of her medium holds the darkness firmly in check." '” New York Times Book Review National Book Award finalist  Linda Pastan was Poet Laureate of Maryland from 1991 to 1993.

Table of Contents

New Poems, 1998
The Almanac of Last Things	p. 3
Nocturnal	p. 4
Le Sens de la Nuit	p. 5
Dreaming of Rural America	p. 6
1936, Upstate New York	p. 8
The News of the World	p. 9
October Catechisms	p. 10
The Obligation to Be Happy	p. 12
Letter	p. 13
Snowstorm	p. 14
Wind Chill	p. 15
Red Fox	p. 16
Deer	p. 17
A Craving for Salt	p. 18
Notes to My Mother	p. 19
Self-Portrait	p. 24
Proclamation at a Birth	p. 26
The Newborn	p. 27
Anna at 18 Months	p. 28
This Enchanted Forest	p. 29
Anon.	p. 33
RSVP Regrets Only	p. 34
Fall in the Literary Review	p. 35
Still Life	p. 36
Nature Morte	p. 37
Woman Holding a Balance	p. 38
Carnival Evening	p. 39
A Perfect Circle Of Sun, 1971
Arcadia	p. 42
January, 7 A.M.	p. 43
At the Gynecologist's	p. 44
Notes from the Delivery Room	p. 45
Dirge	p. 46
Skylight	p. 47
Emily Dickinson	p. 48
At the Jewish Museum	p. 49
Passover	p. 50
The Last Train	p. 52
To a Second Son	p. 53
Beech Avenue: The Fourth of July	p. 54
There Is a Figure in Every Landscape	p. 55
Libation, 1966	p. 56
Between Generations	p. 57
October Funeral	p. 58
Journey's End	p. 59
A Dangerous Time	p. 60
Aspects Of Eve, 1975
Rachel	p. 62
Night Sounds	p. 63
A Real Story	p. 64
Go Gentle	p. 65
Wildflowers	p. 66
Folk Tale	p. 67
Death's Blue-Eyed Girl	p. 69
To Consider a House	p. 70
You Are Odysseus	p. 72
Butter	p. 73
Knots	p. 74
Block	p. 75
Drift	p. 76
Popcorn	p. 77
Sacred to Apollo	p. 78
Aspects of Eve	p. 79
After Agatha Christie	p. 80
Algebra	p. 82
Eclipse	p. 83
A Symposium: Apples	p. 84
The Five Stages Of Grief, 1978
Funerary Tower: Han Dynasty	p. 89
After	p. 90
Egg	p. 92
Voices	p. 93
In the Old Guerilla War	p. 94
Marks	p. 95
It Is Raining on the House of Anne Frank	p. 96
A Short History of Judaic Thought in the Twentieth Century	p. 97
Ice Age	p. 98
Fresco	p. 99
Bicentennial Winter	p. 100
Old Woman	p. 102
Caroline	p. 103
Consolations	p. 104
Geneticist	p. 106
Because	p. 107
Threads to be woven later	p. 108
Postcard from cape cod	p. 110
25th High School Reunion	p. 111
Arithmetic Lesson: Infinity	p. 112
The Five Stages of Grief	p. 114
Waiting For My Life, 1981
Epilogue/Prologue	p. 118/119
Dreams	p. 120
McGuffey's First Eclectic Reader	p. 122
Secrets	p. 124
Waiting for My Life	p. 126
In Back Of	p. 127
Eyes Only	p. 128
Excursion	p. 130
Meditation by the Stove	p. 131
Who Is It Accuses Us?	p. 132
What We Want	p. 133
After minor surgery	p. 134
Pain	p. 135
November	p. 136
Weather Forecast	p. 137
Blizzard	p. 138
There Are Poems	p. 140
Response	p. 141
25th Anniversary	p. 142
Ethics	p. 143
PM/AM, 1982
Instructions to the Reader	p. 146
PM	p. 148
AM	p. 149
A Name	p. 150
The Printer	p. 152
Detail from the Altarpiece at Ghent	p. 153
Mosaic	p. 154
Ark	p. 156
Lists	p. 158
In the Middle of a Life	p. 160
Water Wheel	p. 162
A Fraction of Darkness, 1985
Overture	p. 167
In the Kingdom of Midas	p. 168
Suffocation	p. 169
Japanese Lantern	p. 170
Realms of Gold	p. 172
Prosody 101	p. 174
Orpheus	p. 175
Green Thumb	p. 176
Dream Plants	p. 177
Nostalgia	p. 178
Market Day	p. 179
Family Scene: Mid-Twentieth Century	p. 180
September	p. 182
Routine Mammogram	p. 183
Departures	p. 185
Duet for One Voice	p. 186
The Death of a Parent	p. 189
Shadows	p. 190
The Imperfect Paradise, 1988
Grudnow	p. 194
To a Daughter Leaving Home	p. 196
The Dogwoods	p. 197
After an Absence	p. 198
In the Rearview Mirror	p. 200
At the Loom	p. 201
Rereading The Odyssey in Middle Age	p. 202
Circe	p. 204
The Sirens	p. 206
The Safecracker	p. 207
Ars Poetica	p. 208
The Ordinary Weather of Summer	p. 210
A Walk before Breakfast	p. 211
Erosion	p. 212
Snowing: A Triptych	p. 214
Family Tree	p. 216
The Deathwatch Beetle	p. 218
Elegy	p. 220
Something about the Trees	p. 222
Fruit of the Tree	p. 223
Mother Eve	p. 224
On the Question of Free Will	p. 225
The Animals	p. 226
From The Imperfect Paradise	p. 228
Heroes In Disguise, 1991
Autumn	p. 232
The Way the Leaves Keep Falling	p. 233
The Myth of Perfectability	p. 234
Sculpture Garden	p. 235
The Bookstall	p. 237
On the Marginality of Poets	p. 238
A New Poet	p. 239
Lost Luggage	p. 240
Unveiling	p. 242
Subway	p. 243
An Old Song	p. 244
The Hat Lady	p. 245
Cousins	p. 246
Angels	p. 248
1932-	p. 249
The Happiest Day	p. 250
Balance	p. 251
March 27	p. 252
Crocuses	p. 253
Misreading Housman	p. 254
Gleaning	p. 255
An Early Afterlife, 1995
The Python	p. 259
The Lumberjacks	p. 260
Espaliered Pear Trees	p. 261
The Book	p. 262
Narcissus at 60	p. 263
At Indian River Inlet	p. 264
Ideal City	p. 266
Camping at the Headlands of the Rappahannock	p. 267
Agoraphobia	p. 268
Smoke Screen	p. 270
Stationary Bicycle	p. 271
The English Novel	p. 272
The arithmetic of alternation	p. 273
The Bronx, 1942	p. 274
Courbet's Still Life with Apples and Pomegranate	p. 275
High Summer	p. 276
In a Northern Country	p. 277
Ghosts	p. 278
Old Photograph Album	p. 279
The Laws of Primogeniture	p. 280
What We Fear Most	p. 281
Flowers	p. 282
Snow Showers, a Prothalamion	p. 283
Vermilion	p. 284
Foreshadowing	p. 285
The Apple Shrine	p. 286
Hardwood	p. 287
Sometimes	p. 288
An Early Afterlife	p. 289
Index of Titles and First Lines	p. 291
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