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mary_soon_lee's review against another edition
I chose this poetry book over the others waiting forlornly on my shelves on the strength of a single poem, "Those Winter Sundays," which I find starkly and deeply moving. I found much else that I liked in Hayden's Collected Poems, but nothing to equal that poem. This may be because the impact of poetry can deepen with time and re-reading. In a year or two, I might grow equally fond of another poem from this volume.
I note that I found Reginald Dwayne Betts's introduction powerful, and Arnold Rampersad's afterword both informative and helpful. Robert Hayden, 1913-1980, was an important American poet, who tackled themes of racism and slavery, especially in the context of American history. This collection includes many such poems, of which, this afternoon, my favorite is "Frederick Douglass." Again, my opinion may shift over time. Another poem I particularly liked was 'Monet's "Waterlilies,"' which touches on both America's race struggles and Vietnam in its opening lines ("Today as the news from Selma and Saigon//poisons the air like fallout"), but focuses on the transcendent quality of art.
Hayden employs classical allusions and an extensive vocabulary, yet remains mostly accessible. Occasionally, his work is outright fantasy, such as the poem "Perseus," about the mythic hero who slew Medusa, a short yet hugely effective poem. The final poem in the collection, [American Journal], adopts the conceits of science fiction, using an alien's viewpoint to comment on America.
Two other poems that I especially liked were "Approximations," composed of four haiku-esque parts, which, like haiku, conjured more than they contained, and "Astronauts," which resonated partly because of my own fascination with the subject, and partly because of the unanticipated trajectory of the poem, which closes "Why are we troubled?//What do we ask of these men?//What do we ask of ourselves?"
I recommend the collection as a whole, and, for those too busy to read the whole book, I recommend seeking out "Those Winter Sundays."
I note that I found Reginald Dwayne Betts's introduction powerful, and Arnold Rampersad's afterword both informative and helpful. Robert Hayden, 1913-1980, was an important American poet, who tackled themes of racism and slavery, especially in the context of American history. This collection includes many such poems, of which, this afternoon, my favorite is "Frederick Douglass." Again, my opinion may shift over time. Another poem I particularly liked was 'Monet's "Waterlilies,"' which touches on both America's race struggles and Vietnam in its opening lines ("Today as the news from Selma and Saigon//poisons the air like fallout"), but focuses on the transcendent quality of art.
Hayden employs classical allusions and an extensive vocabulary, yet remains mostly accessible. Occasionally, his work is outright fantasy, such as the poem "Perseus," about the mythic hero who slew Medusa, a short yet hugely effective poem. The final poem in the collection, [American Journal], adopts the conceits of science fiction, using an alien's viewpoint to comment on America.
Two other poems that I especially liked were "Approximations," composed of four haiku-esque parts, which, like haiku, conjured more than they contained, and "Astronauts," which resonated partly because of my own fascination with the subject, and partly because of the unanticipated trajectory of the poem, which closes "Why are we troubled?//What do we ask of these men?//What do we ask of ourselves?"
I recommend the collection as a whole, and, for those too busy to read the whole book, I recommend seeking out "Those Winter Sundays."
pero_tefi's review against another edition
3.0
.......i lost practice with reading poetry and feel dumb for not understanding most of these.....
woody_whatley's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.75
raulbime's review against another edition
5.0
Striking and stunning imagery fills this collection. The language is beautiful and exact, and Hayden does a wonderful job capturing memory and place and the individuals that peopled them. Take these lines from the first poem "The Diver" from this collection for instance:
Sank through easeful
azure. Flower
creatures flashed and
shimmered there—
lost images
fadingly remembered.
Swiftly descended
into canyon of cold
nightgreen emptiness.
Freefalling, weightless
as in dreams of
wingless flight,
plunged through infra-
space and came to
the dead ship,
carcass that swarmed with
voracious life.
There's a wide range here, and among these poems are some with historical figures like Fredrick Douglas, Nat Turner, John Brown, Phillis Wheatley, Malcolm X. Robert Hayden was an accomplished poet who unfortunately I didn't know existed until last year when I discovered the wonderful poem "Those Winter Sundays":
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
Ever since I started reading poetry books not so long ago, I have discovered that a good poem wonderfully succeeds in seizing and presenting the elements of life (nostalgia, memory, grief, loss, joy etc) which are often elusive, slippery to be grasped and even more difficult to express. I can't help feeling that the great collections I have read so far, this one included, are meant to make up for all those years I spent in darkness, and that it is grace. I'll finish off this review with the wonderful poem Monet's Water Lilies:
Today as the news from Selma and Saigon
poisons the air like fallout,
I come again to see
the serene great picture that I love
Here space and time exist in light
the eye like the eye of faith believes.
The seen, the known
dissolve in iridescence, become
illusive flesh of light
that was not, was, and forever is.
O light beheld as through refracting tears.
Here is the aura of that world
each of us has lost.
Here is the shadow of its joy.
Sank through easeful
azure. Flower
creatures flashed and
shimmered there—
lost images
fadingly remembered.
Swiftly descended
into canyon of cold
nightgreen emptiness.
Freefalling, weightless
as in dreams of
wingless flight,
plunged through infra-
space and came to
the dead ship,
carcass that swarmed with
voracious life.
There's a wide range here, and among these poems are some with historical figures like Fredrick Douglas, Nat Turner, John Brown, Phillis Wheatley, Malcolm X. Robert Hayden was an accomplished poet who unfortunately I didn't know existed until last year when I discovered the wonderful poem "Those Winter Sundays":
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
Ever since I started reading poetry books not so long ago, I have discovered that a good poem wonderfully succeeds in seizing and presenting the elements of life (nostalgia, memory, grief, loss, joy etc) which are often elusive, slippery to be grasped and even more difficult to express. I can't help feeling that the great collections I have read so far, this one included, are meant to make up for all those years I spent in darkness, and that it is grace. I'll finish off this review with the wonderful poem Monet's Water Lilies:
Today as the news from Selma and Saigon
poisons the air like fallout,
I come again to see
the serene great picture that I love
Here space and time exist in light
the eye like the eye of faith believes.
The seen, the known
dissolve in iridescence, become
illusive flesh of light
that was not, was, and forever is.
O light beheld as through refracting tears.
Here is the aura of that world
each of us has lost.
Here is the shadow of its joy.
tadasborne's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
blundershelf's review against another edition
4.25
I find poetry very hard to evaluate because it is a different art from novels or memoirs or other writing. Hayden's work was teaching and he achieved it.
mrjess_bhs's review
4.0
There were a few poems of Hayden’s that I just didn’t get at all, some more that I was obviously missing references to comprehend fully, but many more that were right up my alley as a history guy. I really enjoyed his biographical poems and although I know the first and last of anything tend to be the most memorable, I really loved the final poem: [American Journal].
nickrs's review
4.0
Of the three Haydens that emerge from reading his collected works—the poet of private existence, the cosmic Baháʼí poet, and the history poet—it's the last of these that most contests his lingering reputation as a tweedy moderate encountered in anthologies: fervid, quietly modernist, polyvocal, archive-minded, and unlike any other account of America.
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