Leisure Reading
Get e-access to these in the spotlighted titles section below
TAP INTO SOMETHING INSPIRING
Acts of Poetry: American Poets' Theater and the Politics of Performance by Dr. Heidi Bean https://vc.bridgew.edu/english_fac/69/
We Need Art Right Now: Here's How to Get Into Poetry https://www.npr.org/2020/03/30/823944128/we-need-art-right-now-heres-how-to-get-into-poetry
New American Poetry: Whitman & Dickinson Notes https://quizlet.com/112466151/new-american-poetry-whitman-dickinson-notes-flash-cards/
POETRY IN AMERICA https://www.poetryinamerica.org/
POETRY FOUNDATION https://www.poetryfoundation.org/
Spotlighted Bestsellers
-
The Lions by In his second collection of poems, Peter Campion writes about the struggle of making a life in America, about the urge to carve a space for love and family from out of the vast sweep of modern life. Coursing between the political and personal with astonishing ease, Campion writes at one moment of his disturbing connection to the public political structure, symbolized by Robert McNamara (who makes a startling appearance in the title poem), then in the next, of a haunting reverie beneath a magnolia tree, representing his impulse to escape the culture altogether. He moves through various forms just as effortlessly, as confident in rhymed quatrains as in slender, tensed free verse. In "The Lions," Campion achieves a fusion of narrative structure and lyric intensity that proves him to be one of the very best poets of his generation.ISBN: 9780226093215Publication Date: 2009-08-01 -
A New Sound in Hebrew Poetry by With attention to landmark poetic texts, and educational & critical discourse in early 20th-century Palestine, Miryam Segal traces the emergence of a new accent to replace the Ashkenazic or European Hebrew accent in which almost all modern Hebrew poetry had been composed until the 1920s. This encompasses historical, ideological, and political context of this shift, including the construction of a national language, culture, and literary canon; the crucial role of schools; the influence of Zionism; and the leading role played by women poets in introducing the new accent. This study provides new insights into the emergence of modern Hebrew poetry and the revival of the Hebrew language in the Land of Israel.ISBN: 9780253003584Publication Date: 2010-01-02 -
When Winter Come by A sequel to the award-winning Buffalo Dance, Frank X Walker's When Winter Come: The Ascension of York is a dramatic reimagining of Lewis and Clark's legendary exploration of the American West. By focusing on the humanity and struggles of York, Clark's slave, When Winter Come challenges conventional views of the journey's heroes and exposes the deeds, both great and ghastly, of the men behind the myth. Grounded in the history of the famous trip, Walker's vibrant account allows York -- little more than a forgotten footnote in traditional narratives -- to embody the full range of human ability, knowledge, emotion, and experience. He is a skillful hunter who kills his prey with both grace and reverence, and he thinks deeply about the proper place of humans in the natural world. York knows the seasons "like a book," and he "can read moss, sunsets, the moon, and a mare's foaling time with a touch." The Native peoples understand and honor York's innate bond with the earth. Though his expertise is integral to the journey's success, York's masters do not reward him; they know only the way of the lash. The alternately heartbreaking and uplifting poems in When Winter Come are told from multiple perspectives and rendered in vivid detail. On the journey, York forges a spiritual connection and shares sensual delights with a Nez Perce woman, and he aches when he is forced to leave her and their unborn son. Walker's poems capture the profound feelings of love and loss on each side of this ill-fated meeting of souls. When the trek ends and York is sent back to his former home, his wife and stepmother air their joys and grievances. As the perspectives of Lewis, Clark, Sacagawea, and others in the party emerge, Walker also gives voice to York's knife, his hunting shirt, and the river waters that have borne the labors and travels of thousands before and after the Lewis and Clark expedition. Despite fleeting hints that escape is possible, slavery continues to bind York and quell the joyful noise in his spirit until his death. Walker's poems, however, give York his voice after centuries of silence. When Winter Come exalts the historical persona of a slave and lifts the soul of a man. York ascends out of his chains, out of oblivion, and into flight.ISBN: 9780813172910Publication Date: 2009-06-30 -
American Scream by Howl touched a raw nerve in Cold War America and has been controversial from the day it was first read aloud nearly fifty years ago. This is a look at Ginsberg's life, including his relationships with his parents, friends, and mentors, while he was writing the poem, and how this material illuminates the themes of madness, nakedness, and secrecy that pervade Howl. A captivating look at the cultural climate of the Cold War and at a great American poet.
ISBN: 1417525320Publication Date: 2004-01-01 -
Hotel Malabar by Beginning with a question spoken into a tape recorder by one of the characters from the veranda of the Hotel Malabar, Brendan Galvin leads us into his engaging tour de force, a poem/ mystery novel/spy thriller ranging between Cape Cod and Central America. The setting is a Cape Cod hotel during a mid-1970s summer, and the poem unfolds through the monologues of five distinctive characters: an elderly Yankee "banana hand" who spent years in Central America as a plantation manager, three federal agents sent to discover his wartime activities there, and an Indian curandero who is the old man's source of medicines. The story -- replete with tales within tales -- draws the reader into its mysteries through the revelations of these five speakers. As it moves relentlessly toward its conclusion, Hotel Malabar asks questions about human motivation, the nature of truth, and the consequences of secrecy and the willing fabrication of illusions, of a life lived in "a wilderness of mirrors".
ISBN: 1587290774Publication Date: 1998-01-01 -
Trying to Catch the Horses by Long recognized as a meditative poet with an almost mystical connection to animals and the natural world, Gerber begins this collection with a quote from Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh: "Contemplate seeing your bodily form present before you--in the trees, the grass and leaves, the river." In the manner of Rilke and Juan Ramon Jimenez, Gerber's unadorned poems are acts of discovery, inviting us into a place deep within ourselves through a conversation between human consciousness and the consciousness of things. In the title poem "Trying to Catch the Horses," the poet achieves his apparent goal not through will or ambition, but by letting go, to become "a clump of grass they (the horses) must graze," and to reach up and touch "the sky itself as far as it goes." In two of the book's most riveting poems, Gerber focuses his imagination on both our century's World Wars, envisioning a burst of shrapnel as a flight of blackbirds, and questions the entire enterprise of a great battle in the Pacific and how "we never thought / of fish in the sea and how / this was their home though not their war...."ISBN: 585188122Publication Date: 1999-01-01 -
African-American Poets by This volume examines contemporary African-American poets from the well-known writers of the late 20th century to the newly established and emerging voices of today. Full-length critical essays discuss the development and influence of such seminal figures as Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, Rita Dove, Nikki Giovanni, Michael S. Harper, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Carl Phillips. This new edition offers a selection of contemporary critical commentary on this proud and enduring poetic tradition and features an introductory essay by literary scholar Harold Bloom, an index for quick reference, a bibliography, and a chronology.ISBN: 9781438134369
Library Hours
Mon - Fri: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Sat. and Sun.: closed
Contact Information
Administration: 508.531.1256
Circulation: 508.531.1392
ILL/DDS: 508.531.1706
Educational Resource Center: 508.531.1304
Library Hours: 508.531.1749
Reference Desk: 508.531.1394
Maxwell Library
10 Shaw Road
Bridgewater State University
Bridgewater, MA 02325
Send us an email at libraryweb@bridgew.edu