Rukeyser, Muriel

Muriel Rukeyser: Selected Poems (American Poets Project)

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Muriel Rukeyser: Selected Poems (American Poets Project)
Muriel Rukeyser
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Yvor Winters: Selected Poems (American Poets Project)
Kenneth Fearing: Selected Poems (American Poets Project)
Theodore Roethke: Selected Poems: Selected Poems (American Poets Project)
A. R. Ammons: Selected Poems (American Poets Project)
Edna St. Vincent Millay: Selected Poems (American Poets Project)

ASIN: 1931082588

Book Description

Muriel Rukeyser (1913-80) published her first book—the powerfully experimental Theory of Flight—at age twenty-two, and went on to an adventurous and prolific career as poet, translator, and political activist. Her expansive energies sought a poetry in which politics, geography, sexuality, mythology, and autobiography could find fused and fluid expression. From her early, brilliantly cinematic “Poem Out of Childhood” through excerpts from her long wartime “Letter to the Front” to her late “Resurrection of the Right Side,” written after her stroke, this selection represents the many sides and selves of a major poet.

Early Poems, 1935-1955 (New Directions Paperbook, Ndp354)

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Could be better...
A great poet's early work

Early Poems, 1935-1955 (New Directions Paperbook, Ndp354)
Octavio Paz , and Muriel Rukeyser
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Spanish | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987: Bilingual Edition

ASIN: 0811204782

Customer Reviews:

Could be better..........2005-06-24

The reason I picked this book up was to read Octavio Paz in the Spanish (which I appear to be having a difficult time locating a spanish language, as opposed to bilingual, collection of his poetry. but anyway...). I give the poetry itself, as Octavio Paz wrote it, 5 stars. I give the translation about 2 stars. Understandably, translating poetry is always difficult, and I am trying to take that into account as I review this work. However, there are quite a few outright errors in this book. For instance, (let the reader beware that I haven't figured out how to make accent marks in Amazon, so some words must of necessity be misspelled) in the poem titled "Fabula" I count 4 separate errors, 2 of which I must consider inexcusable. line 12: Aquel arbol cantaba reia y prefetizaba. The translation reads: And as it grew it sang laughed prophecied. A more accurate one: That tree sang laughed and prophecied. "Grew" doesn't appear anywhere in the spanish. line 13: Sus vaticinios cubrian de alas el espacio. The translation: It cast the spells that cover space with wings. (What? Where is the translator pulling this stuff from?) Should read: Its predictions covered space with wings. line 20: Son las palabras del lenguaje que hablamos. The translation: They were the words of the language we speak. Apparently the translator doesn't know how to conjugate his verbs, because "Son" means "They are" not "They were." And last but not least, line 21 is missing from the translation entirely. Inexcusable. Thank God I can read Spanish. Anyway, buy the book for his poems, ignore the translations. Cheers.

A great poet's early work.......2001-06-13

"Early Poems 1935-1955," by Octavio Paz, is an excellent collection of work from this important Latin American writer. This is a bilingual edition, with Paz' Spanish originals on each even-numbered page, and English translations on each odd-numbered page. The translations represent the collaborative work of several individuals: Muriel Rukeyser (who also wrote a foreword), Paul Blackburn, Lysander Kemp, Denise Levertov, and William Carlos Williams.

The poems in this book represent a mix of short, haiku-like verses; prose poems; and longer poems. Although Paz is a distinctive and original talent, some of his work seems to echo the spirit of such earlier poets as William Blake, Walt Whitman, and Stephen Crane.

Paz often writes about writing and language, often with a metaphysical, reality-warping perspective. His poems include a multicultural mix of interesting references: Polyphemus, Buddha, Tlaloc, the Tower of Babel, etc. He uses much striking imagery, and frequently his writing has a prophetic tone.

Customer Reviews:

Breathtaking.......2000-05-07

Muriel Rukeyeser is a wonderful poet, much neglected in the canon of 20th century poets. Her words are awe-inspiring and evoke so many feelings, it's hard to know what to do with them when they emerge. Read these poems out loud, dramatically. Hopefully you will be inspired to stand up straight and shout "Yes, Yes! That's exactly right!" much as I was. Reading her words is like giving my soul pen and paper and being able to read the things it would write.

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Willard Gibbs
Muriel Rukeyser
Manufacturer: Dutton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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Carrying the Darkness: The Poetry of the Vietnam War

ASIN: B0007EFA54

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A must-read for poets, authors, and fans of the arts!

The Life of Poetry
Muriel Rukeyser
Manufacturer: Paris Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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The Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser
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ASIN: 0963818333

Amazon.com

In an era in which art is increasingly dictated by marketers, and publishers and filmmakers don't seem to make a move without first consulting focus groups, poetry might seem, at first, a bit superfluous. It's "difficult," for one thing, subject to many interpretations; it's also deeply personal, unsuited to creation by committee. So what possible use does the modern world have for poetry? Muriel Rukeyser answers this question in The Life of Poetry, a book that just keeps coming back in time for each new generation. First published in 1949, it was reissued in 1974 and returns to print again in 1997, courtesy of Paris Press. Rukeyser's presents many definitions of poetry: it is an exchange of energy, a record of the emotional meaning of every moment, a concentration of universal joys and sorrows. It is a thing "in which we may live and which will save us."

Rukeyser, herself a poet, was a woman who understood that poetry alone was not enough to save the world. An activist on behalf of West Virginia coal miners and later censored South Korean writers, Rukeyser had an intimate understanding of the place principle and action occupy in saving the world. But the world needs a soul as well as a mind and a will, and for Rukeyser, poetry fills that role. The Life of Poetry is about poetry, but within that realm fall subjects as varied as musicals; war; and the works of Whitman, Dickinson, and Lorca, among others. Rukeyser died in 1980, but her fierce intelligence and great heart live on in this marvelous meditation on the universal applications of poetry.

Book Description

Observing that poetry is a natural part of our pastimes and rituals, Rukeyser opposes elitist attitudes and confronts Americans' fear of feeling. Multicultural and interdisciplinary, this volume makes an irrefutable case for the centrality of poetry in American life.

"The Life of Poetry is not easy reading, nor was it intended to be. At times its range may seem nervously scattering, and the lyric prose takes on a heavy supersaturation. Nonetheless, one must admire, even 17 years posthumously, a brilliant mind fiercely at work."-Liz Rosenberg, The New York Times Book Review

Excerpt,/B>

Now poetry, at this moment, stands in curious relationship to our acceptance of life and our way of living.

The resistance to poetry is an active force in American life.... Anyone dealing with poetry and the love of poetry must deal, then, with the hatred of poetry, and perhaps even more with the indifference which is driven toward the center. It comes through as boredom, as name?calling, as the traditional attitude of the last hundred years which has chalked in the portrait of the poet as he is known to this society, which, as Herbert Read says, "does not challenge poetry in principle-it merely treats it with ignorance, indifference and unconscious cruelty."

Poetry is foreign to us, we do not let it enter our daily lives. Do you remember the poems of your early childhood-the far rhymes and games of the beginning to which you called the rhythms, the little songs to which you woke and went to sleep?

Yes, we remember them.

But since childhood, to many of us poetry has become a matter of distaste. The speaking of poetry is one thing: one of the qualifications listed for an announcer on a great network, among "good voice" and "correct pronunciation," is the "ability to read and interpret poetry." The other side is told conclusively in a letter sent ninety years ago by the wife of the author of Moby?Dick. Mrs. Melville said to her mother-"Herman has taken to writing poetry. You need not tell anyone, for you know how such things get around."

Customer Reviews:

A must-read for poets, authors, and fans of the arts!.......1998-08-26

Ever wonder why people actively loathe poetry?

Ever wonder why you should continue writing/painting/acting/reading?

Rukeyser's book moves well beyond the range of traditional literary theory, incorporating philosophy, social theory, and science to present a world view unlike any I had ever encountered before.

Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser
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Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser
Muriel Rukeyser
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Rukeyser, Muriel | ( R ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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The Life of Poetry

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How Shall We Tell Each Other of the Poet?: The Life and Writing of Muriel Rukeyser

The Volcano Sequence (Pitt Poetry Series)

ASIN: 0070542716

Book Description

Muriel Rukeyser held a visionary belief in the human capacity to create social change through language. She earned an international reputation as a powerful voice against enforced silences of all kind, against the violence of war, poverty, and racism. Her eloquent poetry of witness-of the Scottsboro Nine, the Spanish Civil War, the poisoning of the Gauley Bridge laborers-split the darkness covering a shameful world.
In addition to the complete texts of her twelve previously published books, this volume also features new poems discovered by the editors; Rukeyser's translations, including the first English translations of Octavio Paz's work; early work by Rukeyser not previously published in book form; and the controversial book-length poem Wake Island. An introduction by the editors traces Rukeyser's life and literary reputation and complements discerning annotations and textual notes to the poems.

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Selected Poems of Gunnar Ekelof
Gunnar; translated by Muriel Rukeyser & Leif Sjoberg Ekelof
Manufacturer: Twayne Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KNQ04C

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Houdini: A Musical
Muriel Rukeyser
Manufacturer: Paris Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

United States | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1930464053

Book Description

This previously unpublished work presents the spectacular life of world-renowned escape artist, Harry Houdini. Part biography part fantasy, Houdini unlocks Rukeyser's worlds of illusion and reality as she leads us from Houdini's childhood in Appleton, Wisconsin (picking up pins with his eyelids) to his acts under water and onstage. We meet his wife Bess, his mother, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the poet's own Marco Bone, vehicle of voices, spirits, and songs. Rukeyser presents Houdini's shocking congressional testimony against spiritual mediums. She shows his great feats of escape, his complex relationships with his mother and his wife, and his ironic, untimely death.

In addition to revealing the story of this country's tantalizing icon, Houdini offers a new understanding of Rukeyser's own work and life. Written at the height of the women's movement, the musical gives us Rukeyser's most famous lines, spoken by Houdini's wife Bess: "What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open." Houdini's response, "It has. Now I am going after it-all pieces." With subtexts of desire, race, grief, and love, Houdini presents Rukeyser's gorgeous, reaching language and her brilliant observations of the human psyche. The musical will appeal to young bell-bottomed readers as well as Houdini devotees, poetry fans, drama people, and escape artists everywhere. A recipient of an NEA, Houdini joins the Rukeyser resurgence that is well underway-with the Paris Press publications of The Life of Poetry and The Orgy, and the University of Pittsburgh's 2002 reissue of The Collected Poems.

Muriel Rukeyser (1913â€“1980) published fifteen collections of poetry, translations, children's books, and several works of nonfiction. Her "toys of fame" include the Yale Younger Poets Award, the Copernicus Award and the Shelley Memorial Award. She served as president of P.E.N. American Center from 1975 to 1976. About Muriel Rukeyser, Kenneth Rexroth said, "If any American poet deserved the Nobel Prize it was she."

Customer Reviews:

beautiful populist voice.......2006-02-23

I'd only just barely heard of Muriel Rukeyser before running across this volume in my mother's book collection. Half of this volume (which is, by the way, 147 pages, not 5 as listed) is her Book of the Dead, a spare hymn in free verse to poor workers dead and dying of silicosis:

In tunnel No. 1 it ran 97-99% pure silica.
The contractors
knowing pure silica
30 years' experience
must have known danger for every man
neglected to provide the workmen with any safety device...
--from Statement: Philippa Allen

This section is free verse, much of it in the words of the sick workers, and very reminiscent of William Carlos Williams or Carl Sandburg.

The second section, Night-Music, has varied subjects and rhyme schemes. Here is a taste of Boy With His Hair Cut Short, in which a young man's sister trims his hair to help him look for work:
Sunday shuts down on this twentieth-century evening.
The L passes. Twilight and bulb define
the brown room, the overstuffed plum sofa,
the boy, and the girl's thin hands above his head.
A neighbor radio sings stocks, news, serenade.

I don't know why Ms. Rukeyser is not as well-known as other poets of her day, with the beautifully solemn word-sounds and the serious and important thoughts her work embodies.

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