Stag's Leap - Softcover

Olds, Sharon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375712259 ISBN 13: 9780375712258

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group, 2012

Synopsis

Stag's Leap is stunningly poignant sequence of poems that tells the story of a divorce, embracing strands of love, sex, sorrow, memory, and new freedom.

In this wise and intimate telling--which carries us through the seasons when her marriage was ending--Sharon Olds opens her heart to the reader, sharing the feeling of invisibility that comes when we are no longer standing in love's sight; the surprising physical bond that still exists between a couple during parting; the loss of everything from her husband's smile to the set of his hip. Olds is naked before us, curious and brave and even generous toward the man who was her mate for thirty years and who now loves another woman. As she writes in the remarkable "Stag's Leap," "When anyone escapes, my heart / leaps up. Even when it's I who am escaped from, / I am half on the side of the leaver." Olds's propulsive poetic line and the magic of her imagery are as lively as ever, and there is a new range to the music--sometimes headlong, sometimes contemplative and deep. Her unsparing approach to both pain and love makes this one of the finest, most powerful books of poetry Olds has yet given us.

About this title

Review:

"Sharon Olds, the winner of the 2012 TS Eliot Prize for Stag’s Leap, is the first female American Poet to win the prize, and perhaps the most accessible poet of her generation." (Tom Payn Telegraph)

"Olds, who has always had a gift for describing intimacy, has, in a sense, had these poems thrown at her by life and allowed them to take root: they are stunning – the best of a formidable career." (Kate Kellaway Observer)

"[A] brilliant and fearless poet." (Joyce Carol Oates)

"A tremendous book of grace and gallantry which crowns the career of a world-class poet." (Carol Ann Duffy Huffington Post)

"Taut and beautiful poems." (Edna O'Brien Guardian)

"Sharon Olds, the winner of the 2012 TS Eliot Prize for Stag’s Leap, is the first female American Poet to win the prize, and perhaps the most accessible poet of her generation."

"Olds, who has always had a gift for describing intimacy, has, in a sense, had these poems thrown at her by life and allowed them to take root: they are stunning – the best of a formidable career."

"[A] brilliant and fearless poet."

"A tremendous book of grace and gallantry which crowns the career of a world-class poet."

"Taut and beautiful poems."

Book Description:

In this emotional new collection from 'America's greatest living poet', Sharon Olds lays bare her divorce and the bones of lost love - her most powerful collection yet and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and T.S. Eliot Prize.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0375712259
• ISBN 13: 9780375712258
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 112