Taking the Occasion
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Ivan R Dee, Inc
Published:11th Sep '08
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The eighth winner of the New Criterion Poetry Prize is Daniel Brown's Taking the Occasion. From its opening lines, his book sounds a new note in poetry: "The thing about the old one about / The tree in the forest and nobody's around / And how it falls maybe with a sound, / Maybe not . . ." In poem after poem, Mr. Brown plays urban speech rhythms (much as Robert Frost played rural ones) across the back-beat of meter and rhyme. Distinctive in matter as well as in manner, Taking the Occasion addresses subjects that range from a moment's fancy to stirring ruminations on existence. In a time when many poets see subjects as superfluous, Brown demonstrates the abiding power of an arresting premise, much as music derives life from a memorable tune. His work repeatedly sounds emotional or philosophical depths, yet he isn't above eliciting a laugh in the process.
Daniel Brown's poems are splendid demonstrations of the power to be obtained from drawing the reins really tight. Yet…Brown hasn't squeezed out the breath and feeling. -- X. J. Kennedy
Brown's laconic and supremely intelligent lyrics pulse with precision and wit. His work is a rare and bracing pleasure to read. -- Rachel Hadas
By putting rhetorical pressure on simple words for maximum effect, Brown manages to say things that sound not like poems but like things said in real conversations that actually matter. Except he says them in well-crafted sonnets. -- John Foy * Contemporary Poetry Review *
Brown's book is an excellent display of the marriage between new formalism and contemporary American poetry in that while the poet's language is deceptively simple, it's organized in a diction that renders a relentless contemplation of a wide range of issues and philosophies. -- Rick Marlatt, Rick Marlatt * Midwest Book Review *
ISBN: 9781566638012
Dimensions: 225mm x 153mm x 18mm
Weight: 227g
80 pages