Notebook 1967-68 - Softcover

Lowell, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374532109 ISBN 13: 9780374532109

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2009

Synopsis

A cycle of unrhymed sonnets dealing with public and private crises, marriage, middle age, and fatherhood, Notebook 1967–68 is considered by many readers to be one of Robert Lowell’s most innovative and searching works. Yet these freeform sonnets (which Lowell reworked in later volumes) are not included in their original form in his Collected Poems. Praised by Seamus Heaney for its “immediate, unprepossessing, blunt-edged force,” Notebook 1967–68 is a key to Lowell’s later style and a landmark in twentieth-century poetry.

About this title

Review

"The poet offers an account of his personal history as it has painstakingly ordered itself in images. It is the response of a racked but magnanimous mind, the response of a poet. . . . Many of the events [in "Notebook"] are drawn from our common history, our wars and demonstrations, our assassinations and riots. Throughout burns a passionate intelligence, a conscience, which the reader feels is trustworthy."--William Meredith, "The New York Times Book Review"

"What Lowell has done is to make poetry difficult again. This has nothing to do with intellectual puzzles: instead, it is the more strenuous creative difficulty of a poetry molded precisely to a powerful and mature talent. [Lowell] appears in "Notebook" as a very subtle man, unashamedly intelligent, well read and alert, whose poems are at once delicate and piercing."--A. Alvarez, "The Observer (London)"

The poet offers an account of his personal history as it has painstakingly ordered itself in images. It is the response of a racked but magnanimous mind, the response of a poet. . . . Many of the events [in "Notebook"] are drawn from our common history, our wars and demonstrations, our assassinations and riots. Throughout burns a passionate intelligence, a conscience, which the reader feels is trustworthy. "William Meredith, The New York Times Book Review"

What Lowell has done is to make poetry difficult again. This has nothing to do with intellectual puzzles: instead, it is the more strenuous creative difficulty of a poetry molded precisely to a powerful and mature talent. [Lowell] appears in "Notebook" as a very subtle man, unashamedly intelligent, well read and alert, whose poems are at once delicate and piercing. "A. Alvarez, The Observer (London)""

"The poet offers an account of his personal history as it has painstakingly ordered itself in images. It is the response of a racked but magnanimous mind, the response of a poet. . . . Many of the events [in Notebook] are drawn from our common history, our wars and demonstrations, our assassinations and riots. Throughout burns a passionate intelligence, a conscience, which the reader feels is trustworthy." --William Meredith, The New York Times Book Review

"What Lowell has done is to make poetry difficult again. This has nothing to do with intellectual puzzles: instead, it is the more strenuous creative difficulty of a poetry molded precisely to a powerful and mature talent. [Lowell] appears in Notebook as a very subtle man, unashamedly intelligent, well read and alert, whose poems are at once delicate and piercing." --A. Alvarez, The Observer (London)

About the Author

Robert Lowell (1917-77) was the renowned and controversial author of many books of poetry, including Day by Day, The Dolphin, and History. FSG also published his Collected Prose in 1987.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0374532109
• ISBN 13: 9780374532109
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160