A Wild PeculiarJoyis Irving Layton's poetic testament. Hailed as the great lyric poet, Irving Layton has come to be known as one of Canada's most powerful, groundbreaking voices, an important and influential writer whose distinguished career spanned almost forty-five years. By turns passionate and grave, joyous and apocalyptic, his beautifully crafted poems are illuminated by a strong social and political conscience, and an intensely humanistic view of the world. This is poetry that is timeless and universal. Drawn from his entire body of work, and now reissued in this handsomely redesigned volume, this edition includes a new introduction by Sam Solecki, and selected short excerpts from Irving Layton's writings on the craft of poetry.A Wild PeculiarJoyonce again makes available to readers the poetry of Irving Layton and stands as the author's definitive selected.

<b>Irving Layton</b> was born in 1912 and has lived most of his life in Montreal. One of Canada’s most highly celebrated and prolific poets, having authored over forty books of poetry, many of which have appeared in translation, Layton has been the recipient of numerous awards for his poetry and for his continuing contribution to Canadian literature. He was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Introduction by Sam Solecki	xv
The Birth of Tragedy	1	(2)
The Swimmer	3	(1)
Vexata Quaestio	4	(1)
The Black Huntsmen	5	(1)
Love the Conqueror Worm	6	(1)
Street Funeral	7	(1)
Against This Death	8	(1)
New Tables	9	(2)
To the Girls of My Graduating Class	11	(1)
Paraclete	12	(1)
Mont Rolland	13	(1)
Rain at La Minerve	14	(2)
Look, the Lambs Are All Around Us!	16	(2)
Misunderstanding	18	(1)
Composition in Late Spring	19	(2)
In the Midst of My Fever	21	(2)
Now That I'm Older	23	(1)
Maxie	24	(2)
Song for Naomi	26	(2)
For Louise, Age 17	28	(1)
The Bull Calf	29	(2)
Seven O'Clock Lecture	31	(1)
The Improved Binoculars	32	(2)
The Cold Green Element	34	(2)
La Minerve	36	(1)
The Poetic Process	37	(2)
Keewaydin Poetry Festival	39	(2)
The Mosquito	41	(1)
Golfers	42	(1)
On Seeing the Statuettes of Ezekiel and Jeremiah in the Church of Notre Dame	43	(2)
From Colony to Nation	45	(1)
The Fertile Muck	46	(2)
Boys Bathing	48	(1)
Song for a Late Hour	49	(1)
Nausicaa	50	(1)
Bargain	51	(1)
The Convertible	52	(1)
Woman	53	(1)
Letter to a Librarian	54	(1)
On Being Bitten by a Dog	55	(1)
Whatever Else Poetry Is Freedom	56	(2)
My Flesh Comfortless	58	(2)
Cain	60	(2)
Cat Dying in Autumn	62	(2)
Cote des Neiges Cemetery	64	(2)
Sheep	66	(2)
Family Portrait	68	(1)
For Mao Tse-Tung: A Meditation on Flies and Kings	69	(2)
Berry Picking	71	(1)
Butterfly on Rock	72	(1)
Paging Mr. Superman	73	(3)
Still Life	76	(1)
The Predator	77	(2)
Keine Lazarovitch: 1870-1959	79	(1)
The Cage	80	(1)
Political Economy	81	(1)
Divine Image	82	(1)
A Tall Man Executes a Jig	83	(4)
There Were No Signs	87	(1)
Plaza de Toros	88	(1)
Ballad of the Old Spaniard	89	(2)
El Gusano	91	(2)
The Day Aviva Came to Paris	93	(3)
An Old Nicoise Whore	96	(2)
Iroquois in Nice	98	(2)
Rhine Boat Trip	100	(1)
The Skull	101	(1)
Ithaca	102	(1)
Stella	103	(2)
Heraclitus	105	(2)
The Graveyard	107	(1)
For Musia's Grandchildren	108	(1)
A Strange Turn	109	(1)
For Natalya Correia	110	(1)
End of the White Mouse	111	(2)
Like a Mother Demented	113	(2)
Centennial Ode	115	(2)
Osip Mandelshtam (1891-1940)	117	(2)
To Maoists	119	(1)
Journey into the Long Night on Castors	120	(1)
Absence	121	(1)
The Silence	122	(1)
Signs and Portents	123	(2)
Bodhidharma	125	(1)
The Shark	126	(1)
The Haunting	127	(1)
Shakespeare	128	(4)
For Auld Lang Syne	132	(1)
The Arch	133	(2)
Catacombe dei Cappuccini	135	(2)
Parque de Montjuich	137	(2)
Cabalist	139	(1)
Midsummer's Dream in the Vienna Stadtpark	140	(1)
For 7515-03296	141	(1)
Europe 1976	142	(1)
The Haemorrhage	143	(1)
To the Victims of the Holocaust	144	(1)
After Auschwitz	145	(1)
For My Sons, Max and David	146	(2)
Israelis	148	(1)
For My Brother Jesus	149	(2)
The Luminous Bagel	151	(2)
Xianity	153	(1)
The Sinner	154	(1)
The Galilean	155	(1)
Dialogue	156	(1)
Recipe for a Long and Happy Life	157	(1)
Hells	158	(1)
The Dark Underside	159	(1)
O Jerusalem	160	(1)
Synagogue in West Palm Beach	161	(1)
The Puma	162	(2)
Yeats in St. Lucia	164	(2)
Figs	166	(1)
Narcissus	167	(1)
Flies	168	(2)
Grand Finale	170	(1)
Night Music	171	(2)
Where Was Your Shit-Detector, Pablo?	173	(3)
Dracula	176	(1)
The Slaughterhouse	177	(1)
Meditation of an Aging Lebanese Poet	178	(1)
La Commedia	179	(1)
Flytrap	180	(1)
The Human Cry	181	(1)
Senile, My Sister Sings	182	(2)
The Garburetor	184	(2)
How a Poem Moves	186	(1)
Proteus and Nymph	187	(1)
L'Envoi	188	(1)
The Annunciation	189	(1)
North of Eden	190	(1)
The Search	191	(2)
Anarch	193	(2)
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik	195	(2)
For My Neighbours in Hell	197	(1)
Sunflowers	198	(1)
Sempre	199	(1)
Early Morning Sounds	200	(1)
Greetings	201	(1)
Blossom	202	(1)
Nominalist	203	(1)
Samantha Clara Layton	204	(1)
The Garden	205	(2)
When Hourly I Praised	207	(1)
Everything in the Universe Has Its Place	208	(1)
Vita Aeterna	209	(1)
The Breaststroke	210	(1)
The Wheel	211	(2)
I Think of Ovid	213	(2)
Inspiration	215	(1)
Party at Hydra	216	(2)
Rupert Brooke: 1887-1915	218	(2)
Fortuna et Cupidas	220	(2)
The Cockroach	222	(2)
The Tightrope Dancer	224	(1)
When Death Comes for You	225	(1)
Bridegroom	226	(1)
Two Women	227	(2)
Fascination	229	(1)
Medusas	230	(1)
The Prize	231	(1)
In Plato's Cave	232	(1)
Letter to a Lost Love	233	(2)
Operation Barbarossa	235	(1)
Expurgated Edition	236	(2)
Out of Pure Lust	238	(1)
Dead Souls	239	(1)
New Shining Worlds	240	(1)
Blind Man's Bluff	241	(1)
Perfection	242	(1)
The Dazed Fly	243	(2)
Descent from Eden	245	(2)
Sex Appeal	247	(1)
Odd Obsession	248	(2)
Portrait of a Modern Woman	250	(2)
To Make an End	252	(2)
Epistle to Catullus	254	(2)
Zucchini	256	(2)
Boris Pasternak	258	(1)
Aristocrats	259	(1)
From the Nether World	260	(2)
For the Wife of Mr. Milton	262	(1)
The Seesaw	263	(2)
The Carillon	265	(1)
I Take My Anna Everywhere	266	(1)
Yeats at Sixty-Five	267	(1)
Kali in the Suburbs	268	(1)
Greek Fly	269	(2)
August Strindberg	271	(1)
Dionysians in a Bad Time	272	(1)
Elegy for Marilyn Monroe	273	(3)
For Ettore, with Love and Admiration	276	(1)
Reingemacht	277	(2)
Boschka Layton: 1921-1984	279	(1)
Eternal Recurrence	280	(1)
Elephant	281	(2)
Funeraria "Olea"	283	(1)
Peacock	284	(1)
Music Hath Such Charms	285	(1)
Tristezza	286	(1)
Fellini	287	(1)
Final Reckoning: After Theognis	288	(2)
Paul Verlaine	290	(1)
Nostalgia When the Leaves Begin to Fall	291	(1)
Old Men	292	(1)
The Lesson	293	(1)
Bottles	294	(2)
Arabs	296	(2)
Molibos	298	(1)
Twentieth Century Gothic	299	(1)
Black Tourist in Tinos	300	(1)
On the Death of Pope Paul VI	301	(1)
La Condition Humaine	302	(1)
Budapest	303	(2)
With the Money I Spend	305	(2)
Beutel's Name Is Inscribed for Eternal Life	307	(1)
Attending Suzanne's Funeral	308	(2)
Late Invitation to the Dance	310	(2)
Lillian Roxon	312	(1)
Birthday Poem for John Newlove	313	(2)
Sandcrab	315	(1)
Etruscan Tombs	316	(2)
A Wild Peculiar Joy	318	(3)
Irving Layton on Poetry	321	(14)
A Note on the Text	335	(2)
Index of Titles	337

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THERE WERE NO SIGNS

By walking I found out
Where I was going.

By intensely hating, how to love.
By loving, whom and what to love.

By grieving, how to laugh from the belly.

Out of infirmity, I have built strength.
Out of untruth, truth.
From hypocrisy, I wove directness.

Almost now I know who I am.
Almost I have the boldness to be that man.

Another step
And I shall be where I started from.

Excerpted from A Wild Peculiar Joy: The Selected Poems by Irving Layton
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.