First Cities Collected Early Poems 1960-1979

by Hacker, Marilyn

• ISBN13: 9780393324327
• ISBN10: 039332432X
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

The wonder of Marilyn Hacker's poems...is that she insists upon the rawness of experience and the metamorphosis of form with equal fervor and makes them both speak with the same voice. The result, again and again, is a poem of intense intimacy, beauty and authority."'”W. S. Merwin

Author Biography

Marilyn Hacker's honors include a National Book Award for Presentation Piece. She lives in Paris and New York, where she teaches at City College of New York. Her most recent poetry collection is Desesperanto

Table of Contents

Presentation Piece
PART ONE
Presentation Piece	4	(2)
Learning Distances	6	(2)
Chanson de l'enfant prodige	8	(2)
An Alexandrite Pendant for My Mother	10	(2)
The Dark Twin	12	(1)
From The Old Reliable	13	(1)
Exiles	14	(1)
She Bitches about Boys	15	(1)
The Navigators	16	(10)
PART TWO
Concordances	26	(2)
Cities	28	(1)
For Elektra	29	(2)
The King of Cups Reversed	31	(2)
Ruptured Friendships	33	(1)
Elektra on Third Avenue	34	(1)
Lines on the Death of Madame de Stael	35	(1)
Alba: August	36	(1)
Alba: October	37	(3)
PART THREE
Aquatic Park: 1967	40	(1)
Iceplants: Army Beach	41	(2)
The Art of the Novel	43	(2)
Before the War	45	(1)
Landscape for Insurrection	46	(2)
The Sea Coming Indoors	48	(2)
Attack on the Iron Coast	50	(2)
Pornographic Poem	52	(2)
Forage Sestina	54	(4)
PART FOUR
Imaginary Translation I	58	(1)
Imaginary Translation II	59	(1)
Imaginary Translation III	60	(3)
To the Reader	63	(1)
Nightsong	64	(1)
The Muses	65	(2)
Waiting	67	(2)
Like Aschenbach in Arizona	69	(3)
PART FIVE
Sestina	72	(2)
Villanelle	74	(1)
Sisterhood	75	(3)
Elegy	78	(4)
Nimue to Merlin	82	(2)
Rooms in Bloomsbury	84	(1)
Aube Provencale	85	(1)
Crepuscule Provencal	86	(1)
Apologia pro opera sua	87	(1)
The Osiris Complex	88	(4)
Untoward Occurrence at Embassy Poetry Reading	92	(2)
A Christmas Crown	94	(8)
SEPARATIONS
Geographer
Geographer	102	(6)
The Terrible Children
The Terrible Children	108	(2)
Jeremy Bentham in Guanajuato	110	(2)
Senora P.	112	(1)
The Song of Liadan	113	(4)
Poem for Edwin Dickinson	117	(1)
Catherine	118	(1)
Catherine in Love	119	(1)
Catherine Pregnant	120	(1)
Catherine Married	121	(1)
Equinoctial	122	(1)
Some of the Boys	123	(1)
Birmingham	124	(1)
September	125	(1)
After the Revolution	126	(6)
The Last Time
Alba: March	132	(1)
Living on the Edge	133	(2)
Somewhere in a Turret	135	(2)
Sonnet	137	(1)
Return	138	(3)
Imaginary Translation	141	(1)
Suggestions of Travel	142	(1)
Occasional Verses	143	(1)
Geode	144	(2)
La Vie de Chateau	146	(2)
Villanelle: Late Summer	148	(1)
Gifts	149	(1)
Rhetoric	150	(1)
The Life of a Female Artist Is Full of Vicissitudes	151	(1)
The Last Time	152	(4)
Prism and Lens
Prism and Lens	156	(10)
Three Seasons: 1944	166	(5)
The Callers	171	(10)
The Companion	181	(7)
Separations
Separations	188	(12)
TAKING NOTICE
Feeling and Form
Feeling and Form	200	(4)
Living in the Moment
Sequence	204	(4)
The Regent's Park Sonnets	208	(5)
Part of a Letter	213	(2)
Rondeau after a Transatlantic Telephone Call	215	(1)
Living in the Moment	216	(2)
Burnham Beeches	218	(1)
Adult Entertainment	219	(1)
A Man with Sons	220	(4)
The Hang-Glider's Daughter
Prayer for My Daughter	224	(1)
Boulder: August 1977	225	(1)
Three Sonnets for Iva	226	(2)
Up from D.C.	228	(2)
Huge Baby Blues	230	(2)
Third Snowfall	232	(2)
Iva's Pantoum	234	(3)
The Hang-Glider's Daughter	237	(5)
Occasions
Sonnet Ending with a Film Subtitle	242	(1)
Introductory Lines	243	(2)
For Getting Started in a New Place	245	(1)
Lines Declining a Transatlantic Dinner Invitation	246	(2)
Iva's Birthday Poem	248	(2)
July 19, 1979	250	(1)
Partial Analysis	251	(1)
Tranche Romanciere	252	(4)
La Fontaine de Vaucluse
Conte	256	(1)
Why We Are Going Back to Paradise Island	257	(2)
Visiting Chaldon Down	259	(3)
Ordinary Women I	262	(1)
Ordinary Women II	263	(3)
Shirland Road	266	(1)
La Fontaine de Vaucluse	267	(4)
Peterborough	271	(3)
Moon Animation	274	(1)
Home, and I've	275	(2)
Five Meals	277	(2)
Pantoum	279	(3)
From Provence	282	(2)
Canzone	284	(4)
Taking Notice
Taking Notice	288	(13)
Index	301