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daniellegorman's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
his poems where he directly mentions his late wife are probably my favorite. i think he was so incredibly tapped into his emotional grief and just knew how to express it in the most potent words. i loved it.
hmidk's review against another edition
2.0
Probably deserves 3 stars - in a bumped up for appreciation-though-not-for-me value - but I only really liked 2 of the poems, those 2 of which I'd read years ago and so were not new, can remember specifically maybe 7 of them on their own, and have a hazy, mildly positive, but mostly hazy, recollection of the rest.
meeshubish's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 Stars.
I found it underwhelming even though I'm a fan of Gilbert. Some poems were worth it though. He wrote about the loss of his wife with such unparalleled sadness that it just seeps from every word straight into your heart.
Poems I thought were memorable: Highlights and Interstices, Voices Inside and Out, Measuring the Tyger, Getting it All.
I found it underwhelming even though I'm a fan of Gilbert. Some poems were worth it though. He wrote about the loss of his wife with such unparalleled sadness that it just seeps from every word straight into your heart.
Poems I thought were memorable: Highlights and Interstices, Voices Inside and Out, Measuring the Tyger, Getting it All.
mugren's review against another edition
1.0
My judgement might be cloudy, because I just finished a book by Charles Bukowski. Nonetheless, I didn't like this book. I only enjoyed two or three poems by him.
poetry_shaman's review against another edition
5.0
There is a lot to say when it comes to this incredible collection. I have read it through twice now, and while I may come back to this review and add to it later for my own benefit, I am ready to take a crack at articulating why I enjoyed this collection so much. One of the most important piece of knowledge to have before going into the collection is a bit about Jack Gilbert's past and fame as a poet. Having been recognized early in his life for poetry, he was treated as a bit of a celebrity for a long while. While a lot about his history is speculation or hearsay, it seems that this popular attention was taxing on the poet and he took some time away from it all in rural Greece with his wife Michiko who died young from disease or sickness. The majority of the poem in this collection are the aftermath of that death. With that context, the book opens up and makes a lot of the overlapping themes more clear. The duality in this book is so interesting: the self and god, the body and spirit, even the self before and after the death of his wife. There are also several poems that deal with all different kinds of guilt: guilt for remembering the time after his wife's passing fondly, guilt for not staying in the world of fame utilizing his "god given" talents, and other forms of guilt one might speculate one. These themes felt fresh and presented in an original, effective way.
Awesome things about this book~
*The lyricism of the poems are masterfully done. While there isn't any traditional formality to speak of, the use of line breaks, subtle alliteration and rhyme, and the use of sentence fragments with traditional punctuation are super useful.
*The imagery in many of these poems is extremely specific and exact... abstraction is limited and useful.
*One of my favorite patterns I would notice in this collection is how Gilbert began poems with a gorgeous description of place with all or the works (color, sensory images, metaphor, etc.) then saying something briefly abstract and returning to the image. About 2/3 into the poem, Gilbert would move from the image into the close specifics of his immediate location:
"Michiko is dying in the house behind me" ("Finding Something" 13)
This movement was so effective and I plan on making shifts like this myself.
Things that could have been different~
*The only real things I would have changed about the book is the amount of philosophical musings placed throughout the book. I felt Gilbert really shined in those image poems and they felt swallowed up in a mass of musings and reflection.
Overall - 5/5 it was an incredible read.
Awesome things about this book~
*The lyricism of the poems are masterfully done. While there isn't any traditional formality to speak of, the use of line breaks, subtle alliteration and rhyme, and the use of sentence fragments with traditional punctuation are super useful.
*The imagery in many of these poems is extremely specific and exact... abstraction is limited and useful.
*One of my favorite patterns I would notice in this collection is how Gilbert began poems with a gorgeous description of place with all or the works (color, sensory images, metaphor, etc.) then saying something briefly abstract and returning to the image. About 2/3 into the poem, Gilbert would move from the image into the close specifics of his immediate location:
"Michiko is dying in the house behind me" ("Finding Something" 13)
This movement was so effective and I plan on making shifts like this myself.
Things that could have been different~
*The only real things I would have changed about the book is the amount of philosophical musings placed throughout the book. I felt Gilbert really shined in those image poems and they felt swallowed up in a mass of musings and reflection.
Overall - 5/5 it was an incredible read.
ngodenise's review against another edition
5.0
Moving poetry. Could read this one over and over again.
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