★★★★★ 5
Above The River: The Complete Poems of james Wright
Format: Paperback
This volume is fascinating, because it does show the different stages of Wright's development as a poet and a writer (the prose sketches and descriptions of Italy are wonderful).
The early poems are extremely capable but there is a sense in which they feel constrained by formal verse conventions, especially rhyme. This becomes evident when he writes in free verse and his voice becomes easier and more vernacular. Some of the poems like "Hook" and "To A Blossoming Pear Tree" are wonderful:
'An old man / Appeared to me once / In the unendurable snow./ He had singe of white beard on his face. / He paused on a strett on Minneapolis / And stroked my face. // Give it to me, he begged / I'll pay you anything. // I flinched. Both terrified, / We slunk away, / Each in his own way dodging / The cruel darts of the cold. "
There are some late poems when he becomes almost incoherent, but the centre of the book is a whole series of poems as powerful and honest as this.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2011
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