This Afterlife
Selected Poems
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- US$12.99
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- US$12.99
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Discover the timeless precision and fierce wit of A. E. Stallings's poetry in this stunning selection from her four acclaimed collections.
This Afterlife: Selected Poems brings together the best of A. E. Stallings's work from Archaic Smile, Hapax, Olives, and Like, along with a lagniappe of additional poems. Themes and characters recur throughout, engaging in a complex interplay of harmony, dissonance, and counterpoint across years and experiences. The Underworld, the Afterlife, ancient history, and the archaeology of the present all resonate with each other in Stallings's masterful verse.
Many of these poems unfold in the mytho-domestic sphere, as seen through the eyes of Penelope, Pandora, Alice in Wonderland, or the poet herself. Stallings's fascination with Greek mythology is heightened by her chosen home of Greece, where contemporary crises and ancient history constantly intersect. Her technical prowess shines in traditional forms, inventive rhyme schemes, supple free verse, and metaphysical conceits, creating poetry that is both melancholy and wise, showcasing a precision that will stand the test of time.
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In this generous selected, translator and poet Stallings (Like) gathers poems from her first four books, as well as previously uncollected poems and translations of George Seferis and Angelos Sikilianos. Spanning 25 years, the oeuvre proves consistent in its adherence to metered rhyme and unabashed allegiance to Greco-Roman sources ("I bow to the yoke/ of making" and "I am/ doctor not of medicine,/ but Latinity," the poet asserts). Readers unversed in classical philology and linguistics may find themselves reaching for a dictionary: "Paradigmatic summers that decline/ Like singular archaic nouns"; "He cursed in the fricative,/ The way she could not act./ Or live in the indicative,/ Only contrary to fact." Persona poems abound, fixed especially on female figures from Western myth, while a poem addressed to "women poets" suggests a dual identification: "You who are both Orpheus/ And She he left in Hell." In "Jigsaw Puzzle" she writes: "Slowly you restore/ The fractured world and start/ To re-create an afternoon before/ It fell apart" Aesthetic and intellectual pleasures are everywhere in this considerable work.
