An Octave Above Thunder
New and Selected Poems
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
An Octave Above Thunder presents a collection of poems spanning more than twenty years in the career of Carol Muske, who has won acclaim for work which marries sophisticated intelligence, emotional resonance, and technical craft. What most distinguishes Carol Muske's poetry is her awareness of the complicated web into which the personal and the political, the familial and the feminist, are woven. Filled with audible contemplation—invocation, echo, dreamsong, dirge—Muske's lyrical precision, assured touch, and exacting clarity make her one of the most talented poets of her generation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ten new and 60 selected poems comprise the best of Muske's career in poetry. Her most recent work stands out. The long title poem--a response to Eliot's "What the Thunder Said"--is a more modern, feminine "Waste Land" with less waste and a lively affection, sounding chords at least one octave above its predecessor. Because her earliest work seems so muted compared to the sharp clarity of later efforts, one wonders why the six poems from Muske's first book (Camouflage, 1975) are included. Other earlier poems exhibit a tendency towards too much abstraction ("When ecstatic life is taken apart/ then re-stitiched in increments,/ it comes to resemble bad faith..." ), and the novelist in her (Saving St. Germ, 1993) sometimes reaches for weighty, operatic last lines. The newest poems, however, fully capture the vigor and range of Muske's talent--"swimming at/ last into that unequivocal light/ I've loved and refused all my life."
