Selected Poems (Revised and Enlarged Edition)

by Duncan, Robert; Bertholf, Robert J.

• ISBN13: 9780811213455
• ISBN10: 0811213455
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-04-17
• Publisher: New Directions

Summary

Duncan, like Dante, was a poet of cosmic imagination, intensely aware of his and poetry's role in the ever-expanding logos of creation. His Selected Poems , first published in 1993, is a "useful and portable compilation," says critic Tom Clark, that "provides the most comprehensive available look at the career of the Bay Area's greatest lyric poet." Editor Robert J. Bertholf has enlarged the original collection to include eleven additional poems and excerpts. The second edition of the Selected Poems fully fleshes out the retrospective of works chosen from the whole of Duncan's writing life. From his early poems through his final Ground Work volumes, as well as his serial poems, "Structures of Rime" and "Passages," composed over the course of thirty years, there emerges a prophetic voice of great perception.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
from "Early Poems" [1939-46]	1	(7)
PERSEPHONE	1	(2)
PASSAGE OVER WATER	2	(1)
THE YEARS AS CATCHES	3	(3)
HOMAGE AND LAMENT FOR EZRA POUND IN CAPTIVITY MAY 12, 1944	6	(2)
from "Berkeley Poems"	8	(3)
"AMONG MY FRIENDS LOVE IS A GREAT SORROW"	8	(1)
I AM A MOST FLESHLY MAN	9	(2)
Medieval Scenes [1950]	11	(14)
THE DREAMERS	11	(1)
THE HELMET OF GOLIATH	12	(2)
THE BANNERS	14	(1)
THE KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM	15	(1)
THE FESTIVALS	16	(1)
THE MIRROR	17	(2)
THE REAPER	19	(1)
THE ADORATION OF THE VIRGIN	20	(1)
HUON OF BORDEAUX	21	(2)
THE ALBIGENSES	23	(2)
from A Book of Resemblances [1950-53]	25	(8)
THE HORNS OF ARTEMIS	25	(1)
ADAM'S SONG	26	(1)
THE SONG OF THE BORDERGUARD	27	(2)
A POEM IN STRETCHING	29	(1)
POETRY DISARRANGED	30	(1)
A BOOK OF RESEMBLANCES	31	(1)
SALVAGES: AN EVENING PIECE	31	(2)
from Writing Writing [1952-53]	33	(7)
THE BEGINNING OF WRITING	33	(1)
IMAGINING IN WRITING	34	(2)
WRITING AS WRITING	36	(2)
DESCRIPTIONS OF IMAGINARY POETRIES	38	(2)
from Letters [1953-56]	40	(14)
FOR A MUSE MEANT	40	(3)
UPON TAKING HOLD	43	(2)
FIRST INVENTION OF THE THEME OF THE ADAM	45	(1)
LIGHT SONG	46	(2)
IT'S SPRING. LOVE'S SPRING.	48	(1)
TRUE TO LIFE	49	(1)
THE HUMAN COMMUNION. TRACES.	50	(1)
RE-	51	(1)
SOURCE	52	(2)
from The Opening of the Field [1960]	54	(20)
OFTEN I AM PERMITTED TO RETURN TO A MEADOW	54	(1)
THE STRUCTURE OF RIME I	55	(1)
THE STRUCTURE OF RIME II	56	(1)
THE STRUCTURE OF RIME IV	57	(1)
THE STRUCTURE OF RIME VI	57	(1)
THIS PLACE RUMORD TO HAVE BEEN SODOM	58	(1)
THE BALLAD OF THE ENAMORD MAGE	59	(2)
THE MAIDEN	61	(2)
POETRY, A NATURAL THING	63	(1)
A POEM BEGINNING WITH A LINE BY PINDAR	64	(8)
THE STRUCTURE OF RIME XI	72	(1)
THE STRUCTURE OF RIME XIII	72	(2)
from Roots and Branches [1964]	74	(27)
ROOTS AND BRANCHES	74	(1)
NEL MEZZO DEL CAMMIN DI NOSTRA VITA	74	(3)
APPREHENSIONS	77	(11)
Four Songs the Night Nurse Sang	88	(3)
1. "HOW LOVELY ALL THAT GLITTERS"	88	(1)
2. "IT MUST BE THAT HARD TO BELIEVE..."	89	(1)
3. "MADRONE TREE THAT WAS MY MOTHER"	90	(1)
4. "LET SLEEP TAKE HER..."	91	(1)
STRUCTURE OF RIME XVI	91	(1)
STRUCTURE OF RIME XVII	92	(1)
OSIRIS AND SET	93	(2)
AFTER READING H.D.'s HERMETIC DEFINITIONS	95	(3)
From The Mabinogion	98	(2)
STRUCTURE OF RIME XX	100	(1)
from Bending the Bow [1968]	101	(23)
BENDING THE BOW	101	(1)
TRIBAL MEMORIES, PASSAGES 1	102	(2)
THE ARCHITECTURE, PASSAGES 9	104	(2)
THE FIRE, PASSAGES 13	106	(6)
"MY MOTHER WOULD BE A FALCONRESS"	112	(2)
THE TORSO, PASSAGES 18	114	(2)
UP RISING, PASSAGES 25	116	(2)
STAGE DIRECTIONS, PASSAGES 30	118	(6)
from Ground Work: Before the War [1984]	124	(16)
ACHILLES' SONG	124	(2)
THE CONCERT, PASSAGES 31	126	(3)
BEFORE THE JUDGMENT, PASSAGES 35	129	(9)
BRING IT UP FROM THE DARK	138	(1)
STRUCTURE OF RIME XXVIII: IN MEMORIAM WALLACE STEVENS	139	(1)
from Dante Etudes	140	(16)
EVERYTHING SPEAKS TO ME	140	(1)
OF EMPIRE	141	(2)
THE HOUSEHOLD	143	(2)
CIRCULATIONS OF THE SONG	145	(11)
from Ground Work II: In the Dark [1987]	156	(13)
THE SENTINELS	156	(1)
IN WAKING	157	(3)
IN BLOOD'S DOMAINE [PASSAGES]	160	(3)
ILLUSTRATIVE LINES	163	(2)
AFTER A LONG ILLNESS	165	(4)
Index of Titles	169