The Sorrows of Eros and Other Poems
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of Notre Dame Press
Published:1st Sep '01
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Drawn from fifteen years of work, The Sorrows of Eros and Other Poems presents a rich selection of the verse of Henry Weinfield. Many of the poems contained here appear for the first time. The sensuous lyricism of the English tradition and the classic austerity of philosophical discourse are brought together in this poetry in a way that is unique in our times. A master of rhyme and meter, Weinfield’s sonnets, tercets, and rhyme royal fall upon the ear with rare grace. Brilliantly allusive in their frames of reference, they are woven from the stuff of Dante, Shakespeare, and Shelley: Plato, Genesis, and the Book of Job. Yet Weinfield is also given to the kind of rigorous intellectual speculation that one usually associates with poets such as William Bronk or George Oppen, and a refined process of abstraction never fails to give the work an utterly contemporary edge. His subject matter is equally challenging; here are poems about political violence, the anomie of the postmodern city, the bittersweet disasters of the erotic life. Powerfully chastening, these poems nevertheless can comfort, charm, and delight; they are “The luminous and liquid solacings/ That language proffers against the void.”
"Again, again one returns to Weinfield's verses for their musical resonance, intellectual incisiveness, unflinching wit, and inescapable relevance: they are companions to be treasured." —Allen Mandelbaum, author of The Aeneid of Virgil and Homer's Odyssey
“Behind columns of discarded form, Weinfield moves stealthy cargo: passion, responsibility, vocation. His poems, and their grave music, are undistracted and undeterred.” —Ross Feld, author of the novels Years Out, Only Shorter, Shapes Mistaken, and Zwilling's Dream, and a collection of poetry, Plum Poems
“The elements which I most appreciate in Henry Weinfield’s poetry are the combination of playfulness and seriousness, the union of traditional form and contemporary sensibility, the commitment to words and to things, the concern for poetry and for persons, the involvement with feeling and with thought, the attachment both to literature and to life.” —Julia Budenz, author of From the Gardens of Flora Baum
“What strikes first in The Sorrows of Eros is the beautiful bravery of Weinfield’s handling of form. The formal language, at once learned and yet contemporary, heightens and modulates perception, passion, speculative thought, weaving itself into a tempered music of substance, depth, and originality.” —Michael Heller, author of Telescope: Selected Poems
“Based in the great tradition of English poetry, Henry Weinfield’s beautifully crafted, memorable lyrics are passionate, witty and philosophical. Here, with Classical precision, the muse Euterpe is given rigorously intelligent voice.” —Michael Perkins, author of Carpe Diem: New and Selected Poems
ISBN: 9780268017668
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
80 pages