Drawn from 15 years of work, this text presents a selection of the verse of Henry Weinfield.

The Sorrows of Eros and Other Poems

Literature & Fiction

Weinfield, Henry

Genre Fiction

University of Notre Dame Press

In 1982 William Bronk won the American Book Award for his book Life Supports: New &amp; Collected Poems. Since then, he has written seven additional books, and Sagetrieb has devoted an entire issue to his work. Bronk is unquestionably a major poet––utterly original, uncompromisingly abstract in content, and deeply sensuous in form. Michael Heller, in The New York Times Book Review, said Bronk’s poetry is “singularly persistent in its own investigation of how our deepest truths are those which are most unsayable.” This volume spans Bronk’s entire career, from his first book Light and Dark, to his most recent Some Words and The Mild Day (Talisman), which the Village Voice praised as “offering epigrammatic style, philosophical reverie, and haiku-like concision.” Selected Poems is an indispensable collection, containing the most compelling and the most popular of Bronk’s eloquent poems.

Selected Poems (New Directions Paperbook)

BRONK, William

Poetry

New Directions

The Tears of the Muses

Dos Madres Press

The Blank-Verse Tradition from Milton to Stevens: Freethinking and the Crisis of Modernity

Blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter, has been central to English poetry since the Renaissance. It is the basic vehicle of Shakespeare's plays and the form in which Milton chose to write Paradise Lost. Milton associated it with freedom, and the Romantics, connecting it in turn with freethinking, used it to explore change and confront modernity, sometimes in unexpectedly radical ways. Henry Weinfield's detailed readings of the masterpieces of English blank verse focus on Milton, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson and Stevens. He traces the philosophical and psychological struggles underlying these poets' choice of form and genre, and the extent to which their work is marked, consciously or not, by the influence of other poets. Unusually attuned to echoes between poems, this study sheds new light on how important poetic texts, most of which are central to the literary canon, unfold as works of art.

British & Irish

Cambridge University Press

Blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter, has been central to English poetry since the Renaissance. It is the basic vehicle of Shakespeare's plays and the form in which Milton chose to write Paradise Lost. Milton associated it with freedom, and the Romantics, connecting it in turn with freethinking, used it to explore change and confront modernity, sometimes in unexpectedly radical ways. Henry Weinfield's detailed readings of the masterpieces of English blank verse focus on Milton, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson and Stevens. He traces the philosophical and psychological struggles underlying these poets' choice of form and genre, and the extent to which their work is marked, consciously or not, by the influence of other poets. Unusually attuned to echoes between poems, this study sheds new light on how important poetic texts, most of which are central to the literary canon, unfold as works of art.

George Oppen (1908–1984), born into a prosperous German Jewish family, began his career as a protégé of Ezra Pound and a member of the Objectivist circle of poets; he eventually broke with Pound and became a member of the Communist party before returning to poetry more than twenty-five years later. William Bronk (1918–1999), by contrast, a descendant of the first European families in New York, was influenced by the works of Shakespeare, the King James Bible, and the work of the New England writers of the American Renaissance. Despite differences in background and orientation, the two men formed a deep friendship and shared a similar existential outlook. As Henry Weinfield demonstrates in this searching and original study, Oppen and Bronk are extraordinary thinkers in poetry who struggled with central questions of meaning and value and whose thought acquires the resonance of music in their work. These major writers created poetry of enduring value that has exerted an increasing influence on younger generations of poets. From his careful readings of Oppen’s and Bronk’s poetry to his fascinating examination of the letters they exchanged, Weinfield provides important aesthetic, epistemological, and historical insights into their poetry and poetic careers. In bringing together for the first time the work of two of the most important poets of the postwar generation, The Music of Thought not only illuminates their poetry but also raises important questions about American literary history and the categories in terms of which it has generally been interpreted.

The Music of Thought in the Poetry of George Oppen and William Bronk

History & Criticism

University Of Iowa Press

Poetry. Translation. "A poet of exquisite formal control, Henry Weinfield writes lyrical and narrative poems that have a rich, sad music for which the ear and the heart hunger"--Kevin Hart. "The secret of this poet's power lies in the music of his verse. If poetry consists foremost of harmony in words, Weinfield has perfect pitch! Whatever the subject, with the happy rhythms of dance and the lovely magic of verbal sound he always takes us along to that point, where all things and all words, even the most abstract, look new and fresh. This is a precious book"--Louis Dupre. Henry Weinfield is a poet, translator, and literary scholar. He is the author of a number of collections of poetry, including The Sorrows of Eros and Other Poems; of a translation of and commentary on the Collected Poems of Stephane Mallarme; and of a literary study, The Poet Without a Name: Gray's Elegy and the Problem of History. His poems, essays, and articles have appeared in numerous journals. His verse translation of Hesiod's Works and Days and Theogony (with Catherine Schlegel of the Classics Department) was published by the University of Michigan Press in 2006. He is a professor in the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Without Mythologies: New & Selected Poems and Translations

Poetry. Jewish Studies. "In his Foreword to this astonishing book, Henry Weinfield calls the prophet Elijah 'one of the most daemonic and uncanny figures in literature.' And with these poems, Weinfield himself becomes one of the most daemonic and uncanny poets writing today. The high formality and decorum of his verse produce an unparalleled lucidity and sublime resonance. In 'The Book of Elijah,' modern English poetry, mediated by the inescapable language of the King James Bible, is now the vehicle for an epic tale drawn from the archaic Jewish tradition. But this is hardly an exercise in antiquarianism. Look at Weinfield's 'Praise and Lamentation': in a fluid, conversational style, he has written one of the most powerful and intelligent political poems in recent memory. This is a book to read at Passover&mdash;and all year long."&mdash;Norman Finkelstein

A Wandering Aramaean: Passover Poems and Translations

Poetry. "Henry Weinfield's poems are, like the bird of his title, dark and foreboding. Western civilization, they appear to be telling us, has lost its way and now has nowhere to go. But this view is expressed in poems as articulate, elegant, learned and witty--in short, as civilized--as it is possible for poems to be. The contrast between Weinfield's skill and what his skill is called on to express could not be more poignant."--Clive Wilmer

As the Crow Flies

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Weinfield, Henry. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Weinfield, Henry

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Weinfield, Henry. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Sorrows of Eros and Other Poems

Selected Poems (New Directions Paperbook)

The Tears of the Muses

The Blank-Verse Tradition from Milton to Stevens: Freethinking and the Crisis of Modernity

The Blank-Verse Tradition from Milton to Stevens: Freethinking and the Crisis of Modernity

The Music of Thought in the Poetry of George Oppen and William Bronk

Without Mythologies: New & Selected Poems and Translations

A Wandering Aramaean: Passover Poems and Translations

As the Crow Flies