FIRSTBORN

by Louise Gluck ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1968

Miss Gluck has been hailed as ""the most gifted of poets in their twenties,"" and has won a poetry competition and a Rockefeller Foundation grant. Many of the poems in this, her first collection of poetry, have appeared in prominent magazines, Its qualities of terse strength and clipped lyricism make it, perhaps, especially appealing to modern readers. Generally written in rhymes or off-rhymes, her poetry consists of lines of varying length, mostly brief. She deals in wastelands. . . the lost lives of cripples, hunchbacks, the hopeless and loveless. . . . Yet her landscapes and character sketches have a stern beauty, a mythic size that looms behind the everyday. The landscapes of Nantucket are fused into the pitiless aftermath of love; the light of youth and life emanates from poems about a younger sister. Glimpses of other lives--a racing driver's widow, a grandmother contemplating the garments of her past and present life, a tedious marriage--are viewed from inside, Arid, merciless, stinging, yet full of life, these are indeed strikingly original poems.

Pub Date: March 1, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: New American Library

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION