A Commonplace Book of Pentastichs: Poetry

Carruth, Hayden; Laughlin, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811213862 ISBN 13: 9780811213868

Publisher: New Directions, 2009

James Laughlin (1914-97) was a poet of distinction as well as the founding publisher of New Directions. A Commonplace Book of Pentastichs, the last book of his own that he helped to prepare, is a compilation of 249 poems composed in a five-line stanza form first introduced in The Secret Room (1997). A note to "Thirty-nine Pentastichs" in that earlier volume explains: "A 'pentastich' refers simply to a poem of five lines, without regard to metrics. The present selection is of recent short-line compositions in natural voice cadence, many of them marginal jottings and paraphrases of commonplace book notations." Here, then, are armchair marginalia and apercus to be savored at random.

About the Author:

Hayden Carruth (1921-2008) was a 20th century American poet, literary critic and editor.

Synopsis:

A compilation of 249 poems composed in a five-line stanza form.