First Loves: Poets Introduce the Essential Poems that Capitivated and Inspired ThemWhen Carmela Ciuraru asked her favorite poets to write about the poems that first inspired them, she was astonished by the illuminating responses she received. In turn, readers will be delighted by the intimate reflections on life and poetry found in First Loves.Affording close-up views of today's best poets, the book also (re)introduces readers to the timeless poems they selected. Sherman Alexie writes about recognizing the constant threat of violence on his reservation when he read Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz". It was a poem by her father that taught Virginia Hamilton Adair about the joys of poetry and the hidden life of her parent. J. D. McClatchy tells of first reading Homer by candlelight while eating a bowl of applesauce. Featuring many Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners, the book includes essays by Seamus Heaney, Robert Pinsky, Jorie Graham, Yusef Komunyakaa, and many others.Just in time for National Poetry Month, First Loves is a testament to poetry's matchless abilityto restore faith, offer salvation and solidarity, and above all, alter the course of human life. |
From inside the book
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Page 148
So I had the good luck to learn early on that one of the things poems do is tell stories , which kept me from being afraid of them ; and to learn ( bodily , not intellectually , of course ) that it's the beat that tells the story .
So I had the good luck to learn early on that one of the things poems do is tell stories , which kept me from being afraid of them ; and to learn ( bodily , not intellectually , of course ) that it's the beat that tells the story .
Page 163
Perhaps the roses really want to grow , The vision seriously intends to stay ; If I could tell you I would let you know . Suppose the lions all get up and go , And all the brooks and soldiers run away ; Will Time say nothing but I told ...
Perhaps the roses really want to grow , The vision seriously intends to stay ; If I could tell you I would let you know . Suppose the lions all get up and go , And all the brooks and soldiers run away ; Will Time say nothing but I told ...
Page 180
... is best retained as thought , not document . After all , a first love should be kept private , no ? All the clumsiness involved , the unpracticed embrace of it ? I shouldn't kiss and tell , though the telling is many years delayed ?
... is best retained as thought , not document . After all , a first love should be kept private , no ? All the clumsiness involved , the unpracticed embrace of it ? I shouldn't kiss and tell , though the telling is many years delayed ?
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Contents
Acknowledgments | 11 |
Introduction by Carmela Ciuraru | 19 |
Virginia Hamilton Adair on Along the Road by Robert | 25 |
Copyright | |
19 other sections not shown
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First Loves: Poets Introduce the Essential Poems That Captivated and ... Carmela Ciuraru Limited preview - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
American beauty become beginning blood Blow body books of poetry born called child City close Collected coming Copyright course dark dead death deep desire dream early English eyes face fall father feel felt Galway green hand head hear heard heart Hilda Doolittle human imagination kind knew language later learned leaves light lines listen lives look meaning memorized mind moon mother move nature never night once Oscar Hammerstein II Perhaps permission poem poet poetry published reader remember Reprinted rhymes Robert round seemed sense singing sleep song soul sound stand Stevens teaches tell things thou thought touch trees turn University verse voice wind write written young
Bibliographic information
| Title | First Loves: Poets Introduce the Essential Poems that Capitivated and Inspired Them |
| Editor | Carmela Ciuraru |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Scribner, 2000 |
| Original from | the University of California |
| Digitized | 1 Apr 2008 |
| ISBN | 068486438X, 9780684864389 |
| Length | 268 pages |
| Subjects | › Literary Criticism / Poetry |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |