The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov
by Howard Nemerov
On This Page
Description
The former Poet Laureate of the United States, Nemerov gives us a lucid and precise twist on the commonplaces of everyday life. The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1978. "Howard Nemerov is a witty, urbane, thoughtful poet, grounded in the classics, a master of the craft. It is refreshing to read his work. . . . "-Minneapolis Tribune "The world causes in Nemerov a mingled revulsion and love, and a hopeless hope is the most show more attractive quality in his poems, which slowly turn obverse to reverse, seeing the permanence of change, the vices of virtue, the evanescence of solidities and the errors of truth."-Helen Vendler, New York Times Book Review show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Howard Nemerov was the guest of honor at a small dinner party that my wife and I were invited to by my good friend, physicist John Rigden. Howard was absolutely brilliant, in a way that reminded me of great scientists I have met. I was exhausted by the end of the dinner. This book has some of my favorite poetry, that always reminds me of that marvelous dinner.
Among my favorites: "Novelists": "Theirs is a trade for egomaniacs..." Another of my favorites, "The Makers" is not in this book however, so there must be another, later collection I should look for. Nemerov was so wise, and smart (not the same thing).
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
58+ Works 678 Members
Nemerov's poetry is known for its wit and intelligence. His poetry is stoical and ironical. In his essays, he has argued against both what he considers to be the slackness of "free form" and the rigidity of prescriptive measures from the past. Nemerov's first book of poetry, The Image and Law (1947), was well received by critics, while The Salt show more Garden (1955) reflects the themes he was to develop in his writing, especially a concern for nature. The Blue Swallows (1967) received mixed reviews but won him the first Roethke Memorial Prize. He also received the Oscar Blumenthal Prize (1958), the Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize (1959), the National Institute and American Academy Award in literature (1961), and the Pulitzer Prize (1978). A lively and uncompromising critic, he has selected for his Poetry and Fiction: Essays of the 1970s emphasizing twentieth-century literature and the contemporary stance of the critic. Journal of the Fictive Life (1965) is Nemerov's somewhat grim introspective search for the conditions that make a writer most creative. He became the third poet laureate of the United States in 1988. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1977
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 137
- Popularity
- 237,876
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.23)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
