Collected Poems and Selected Prose

by Burnshaw, Stanley

• ISBN13: 9780292709096
• ISBN10: 0292709099
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

"Stanley Burnshaw has played an active role on the literary scene since the late 1920s in many capacities--poet, critic, editor-publisher, fiction writer, memoirist, translator, anthologist, and theorist of poetry and translation. Besides collecting most of his poems for the first time, something which has long been overdue, this book gives a broad overview of his prose writing, including the whole last section of his biography/memoir of Robert Frost; a key chapter from his classic work of poetic theory, The Seamless Web; the definitive last word on his controversy with Wallace Stevens; and the whole text of his superb memoir/novella, My Friend, My Father. These are pieces that will never go out of fashion. As a poet, Burnshaw is a meticulous craftsman with a fine ear and a considerable lyric gift. The first section, Early and Late Testament, is not his strongest, but there are many fine poems here. Caged in an Animal's Mind (1963) and In the Terrified Radiance (1972) show Burnshaw at the peak of his powers as a poet, breaking through to an essential clarity and simplicity, as do some of the last poems. Burnshaw, now in his nineties, has made numerous small revisions in poems all through the book, and every single one of them is an improvement, [which] shows what a conscious craftsman and creative student of verse he remains. In sum, this book not only fills out the historical record of an important and enduring literary career, but also offers a wonderful range of good reading in both prose and poetry--in short, a living body of work." --Morris Dickstein, Distinguished Professor of English and Senior Fellow, Center for the Humanities, Graduate Center of the City University of New York Stanley Burnshaw began to publish poems in the 1920s and founded his own verse journal in 1925. After serving as coeditor and drama critic of the New Masses weekly (1934-1936), he entered book publishing, directing the Dryden Press until 1958, when he joined Henry Holt. The first of his nineteen earlier works, Andreacute; Spire and His Poetry, appeared in 1934 and the last in 1990, A Stanley Burnshaw Reader, with an introduction by Denis Donoghue. The present volume--the definitive Burnshaw collection--offers all the poems he wishes to preserve and a full representation of his prose, including My Friend, My Father in its entirety. The Collected Poems and Selected Prose is vital reading for anyone wishing to be fully acquainted with the man whom Karl Shapiro called "one of the best-respected men of letters of our time."

Table of Contents

Foreword	xv
Thomas F. Staley
EARLY AND LATE TESTAMENT (1952)
EARLY AND LATE TESTAMENT	3	(27)
(PREAMBLE)
Time of Brightness	3	(2)
(FIRST TESTAMENT)
Bread	5	(1)
(SECOND TESTAMENT)
The Iron Lands	6	(1)
Do I Know Their Names?	7	(1)
For a Workers' Road-Song	8	(1)
All Day the Chill...	8	(1)
Will You Remake These Worlds?	9	(1)
(THIRD TESTAMENT)
A Coil of Glass (I)	10	(1)
Anchorage in Time (I)	11	(1)
(FOURTH TESTAMENT)
This War Is Love	12	(1)
A Coil of Glass (II)	12	(1)
Hero Statues	13	(1)
(FIFTH TESTAMENT)
Dialogue of the Heartbeat	14	(2)
The Bridge	16	(1)
Heartbeat Obbligato	17	(1)
End of the Flower-World	18	(1)
(SIXTH TESTAMENT)
Looking for Papa	19	(1)
Among Trees of Light	20	(1)
Coasts of Darkness	20	(1)
In Strength of Singleness	21	(1)
(SEVENTH TESTAMENT)
Blood	22	(1)
It Was Never This Quiet...	23	(1)
When Was It Lost?	24	(1)
Woodpecker	25	(1)
Voices in Dearness...	26	(1)
Song Aspires to Silence	27	(1)
Anchorage in Time (II)	28	(1)
(EIGHTH TESTAMENT)
Two Men Fell in the Irish Sea	29	(1)
POETRY: THE ART	30	(12)
ODES AND LYRICS
To a Young Girl Sleeping	34	(1)
Innocence	34	(1)
Wave	35	(1)
Event in a Field	36	(1)
The Fear	36	(1)
Midnight: Deserted Pavements	37	(1)
Random Pieces of a Man	38	(1)
Waiting in Winter	39	(1)
Outcast of the Waters	39	(1)
Restful Ground	40	(1)
Days	40	(1)
Willowy Wind	41	(1)
THE HOLLOW RIVER	42	(25)
SECOND-HAND POEMS
Anonymous Alba: En un vergier soiz folha d'albespi	45	(1)
Orleans: Le temps a laissie...	46	(1)
Spire: Nudites	46	(1)
Spire: Ce n'est pas toi...	47	(1)
Spire: Nativite	48	(1)
Spire: Un parfum eternel...	49	(1)
Spire: Baisers	50	(1)
Spire: Friselis	50	(1)
Spire: Volupte	51	(4)
CAGED IN AN ANIMAL'S MIND (1963)
THOUGHTS ABOUT A GARDEN
Historical Song of Then and Now	55	(1)
Summer	56	(1)
Ravel and Bind	56	(1)
Caged in an Animal's Mind	57	(1)
Ancient of Nights	57	(1)
Symbol Curse	58	(1)
The Valley Between	59	(1)
Thoughts about a Garden	60	(1)
Petitioner Dogs	61	(1)
Father-Scones	62	(1)
Night of the Canyon Sun	62	(2)
A Recurring Vision	64	(1)
Midnight Wind to the Tossed	65	(2)
THE AXE OF EDEN	67	(6)
LISTEN:	73	(47)
RANDOM PIECES OF A MAN
Thoughts of the War and My Daughter	78	(1)
A River	79	(1)
Surface	80	(1)
Preparation for Self Portrait in Black Stone	81	(1)
Mornings of St. Croix	81	(1)
Boy over a Stream	82	(1)
Letter from One Who Could Not Cross the Frontier	83	(1)
Nightmare in a Workshop	83	(1)
Seven	84	(1)
Clay	85	(1)
A Rose Song	85	(1)
Guide's Speech on a Road near Delphi	86	(1)
Song of Nothings: In the Mountain's Shadow at Delphi	87	(1)
I Think among Blank Walls	87	(1)
Seedling Air	88	(1)
Three in Throes	89	(1)
Modes of Belief	89	(1)
House in St. Petersburg	90	(2)
SECOND-HAND POEMS
Akhmatova: The Muse	92	(1)
George: Denk nicht zu viel...	92	(1)
Eluard: L'Amoureuse	93	(1)
Von Hofmannsthal: Eigene Sprache	93	(1)
Alberti: El angel bueno	94	(3)
IN THE TERRIFIED RADIANCE (1972)
THE TERRIFIED RADIANCE
The Terrified Radiance	97	(1)
To a Crow	98	(1)
Innocent War	99	(1)
Gulls...	100	(1)
Central Park: Midwinter	100	(1)
The Finding Light	101	(1)
Erstwhile Hunter	102	(1)
Their Singing River (I)	102	(1)
Not to Bereave...	103	(1)
Underbreathing Song	104	(1)
Emptiness...	105	(1)
Procreations	105	(2)
WOMEN AND MEN
Movie Poster on a Subway Wall	107	(1)
End of a Visit	107	(1)
The Echoing Shape	108	(1)
Summer Morning Train to the City	109	(1)
Terah	110	(1)
Isaac	110	(1)
Talmudist	111	(1)
Song of Succession	112	(1)
En l'an...	112	(1)
Dialogue of the Stone Other	113	(1)
In the Coastal Cities	114	(1)
Will of Choice	115	(1)
Chanson Innocente	116	(1)
The Rock	116	(1)
Condor Festival	117	(1)
THREE FRIENDS
We Brought You Away as Before...	118	(1)
Friend across the Ocean	118	(1)
Wildness	119	(1)
THE HERO OF SILENCE	120	(363)
Dedication: An Eternity of Words	120	(1)
Master and Pupils	121	(1)
Soliloquy from a Window: Man and Flowers	122	(1)
Dialogue before Waking	123	(1)
Fume	124	(1)
Into the Blond Torrent	124	(1)
The Waking	125	(3)
SECOND-HAND POEMS
Paz: Mas alla del amor	128	(1)
Spire: Retour des Martinets	129	(1)
Alberti: Cancion del angel sin suerte	130	(1)
Alberti: El angel mentiroso	131	(1)
Verhaeren: La Beche	131	(2)
Akhmatova: from ``The White Flock''	133	(1)
Unamuno: Me destierro...	133	(4)
MIRAGES: Travel Notes in the Promised Land (1977)
First Landscape	137	(3)
Generations of Terror	140	(3)
Blind Tale	143	(3)
Seventh-Day Mirage	146	(5)
The Rock	151	(4)
Talmudist	155	(5)
Marching Song	160	(3)
Choices	163	(8)
LATER POEMS (1977-)
Message to Someone Four Hundred Nights Away	171	(1)
The House Hollow	172	(1)
Argon	172	(1)
Florida Seaside	173	(1)
Old Enough at Last to Be Unsolemn	174	(1)
Mind, If You Mourn at All	175	(1)
To Wake Each Dawn	175	(1)
Their Singing River (II)	176	(1)
Speech, the Thinking-Miracle	176	(2)
Man on a Greensward	178	(5)
SOCIAL POEMS OF THE DEPRESSION (from The New Masses and The Iron Land [1936])
The Crane-Driver	183	(1)
Street Song: New Style	184	(1)
I, Jim Rogers	185	(3)
Mr. Tubbe's Morning Service	188	(295)
Notes on the Poems	190	(7)
SELECTED PROSE
My Friend, My Father	197	(151)
Stevens' ``Mr. Burnshaw and the Statue''	348	(10)
The Poem Itself: ``Discussing Poems Into English''	358	(7)
Thomas Mann Translates ``Tonio Kroger''	365	(5)
A Future for Poetry: Planetary Maturity	370	(24)
The Seamless Web	394	(21)
Toward The ``Knowable'' Frost	415	(68)
Index of Poem Titles and First Lines	483