American Smooth: Poems - Hardcover

Dove, Rita

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393059871 ISBN 13: 9780393059878

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004

Synopsis

This exciting new collection pays homage to America's kaleidoscopic cultural heritage: from the glorious shimmer of an operatic soprano to Bessie Smith's mournful wail; from paradise lost to angel-food cake; from hot-shots at the local shooting range to the Negro jazz band in the First World War, whose music conquered Europe before the Allied advance. Like the ball-room dancing couple of the title poem, smiling and making the difficult seem effortless, Rita Dove explores shifting surfaces between perception and imitation.

About this title

Review:

"[Dove] combines a rare lyric talent with sensual celebration and a ceaselessly questing intelligence." The Independent "An outstanding poet of the delicate nuances present in social complexity, of the lyric reflection embedded in the epic journey." The Times Literary Supplement

About the Author:

Rita Dove is the Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia. She is a former US poet laureate and has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0393059871
• ISBN 13: 9780393059878
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 112