Questions About Angels
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Billy Collins has emerged as the most beloved American poet since Robert Frost, garnering critical acclaim and broad popular appeal. Annie Proulx admits, “I have never before felt possessive about a poet, but I am fiercely glad that Billy Collins is ours.”
This special, limited edition celebrates Billy Collins's years as U.S. Poet Laureate. Questions About Angels--one of the books that helped establish and secure his reputation and popularity during the 1990s--is remarkable for its wry, inquisitive voice and its sheer imaginative range. Edward Hirsch selected this classic book for the National Poetry Series, and each of Collins's poems-from his meditation on forgetfulness to his musings on the behavior of angels-is an exploration of imaginative possibilities. Whether reading him for the first time or the fiftieth, this collector's edition is a must-have for anyone interested in the poet the New York Times calls simply “the real thing.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Smack-dab in the middle of this collection is the delightful ``Purity,'' a poem detailing Collins's macabre writing process. On Wednesdays, in the late afternoon, the poet goes to his study and sheds his clothes. He then removes his flesh--``so that what I write will be pure, / completely rinsed of the carnal''--and takes out each of his organs so as not ``to hear their ancient rhythms / when I am trying to tap out my own drumbeat.'' ``Purity'' is about ideas rather than feelings, but the poet executes his metaphors with perfect precision and a bravura wit. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about most of the other poems here. Collins's images are often strange and wonderful but too frequently his poems are constricted by the novelty of a unifying metaphor. In ``Cliche,'' Collins ( Pok er face ) writes about his life as ``an open book,'' and all that we eventually end up learning is that he ``loves to feel the daily turning of the pages.'' We can admire the scope of Collins's imagination, but his poems rarely induce an emotional reaction, precluding us from any affinity with his experience. This volume was selected by Edward Hirsch for the 1990 National Poetry Series.
