THE SNOW POEMS

by A. R. Ammons ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 25, 1977

As his readers know, Ammons' great subject is the continuum, the flow, the world fully and ever ""participating"" in itself while the poet stands as still as he can to note, appreciate, and sluice. Long, stretchy poems have been the primary medium, and more often than not they approximate large blocks of natural time: a whole year or, as here, a couple of seasons. This unfolding leisure is precious to Ammons--read key poems like ""Ivy, a Winding. . .)"" and ""Considering the Variety""--and the present book is sometimes so elastic it seems almost slack: along with the poet's familiar prosy, often Latinate syntax we get football scores, typographical doodlings, puns. But Ammons is a superior craftsman; his casualness is born of care. The tactics may look more appropriate to the wise-guy than the aesthete, but throw-away endings and parallel columns of verse attempt to open the poem up, free it. Freedom even at the expense of his approving critics, the best known of whom is irascibly referred to in a couple of poems. Whether this unraveling in search of stylistic liberation really succeeds isn't altogether clear yet: many of the poems still cleave to a formula of one part verbal fancy-dancing to two parts episcopal statement. But for a gander alone at wonderful poems like ""Mist Curtains Lower and Dissolve,"" ""One Loves,"" and ""One Trains Hard For,"" it's more than worth the price of admission.

Pub Date: Aug. 25, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1977

Categories: NONFICTION