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A review by lucasmiller
Country Music: Selected Early Poems by Charles Wright
4.0
The longer I read this collection, which draws from Wright's first four collections, the more I enjoyed and connected with it. This was the first poetry collection I have read and the first time reading Wright in any sustained way. I know longer remember when or where I bought this collection.
Each collection shows the language getting sparer. The lines thin and the length of individual poems rarely hit the halfway point on a page. The imagery is still dense with invented compound words and equal references to the foothills of the Smokies in Tennessee and the Alps in Northern Italy. Most of these poems feel serial, but I'm not sure what they add up to.
I don't know how often I will return to these, many times I felt I was just letting my eyes wash over the page without really knowing what I was reading, but my interest in Wright is piqued. Even if these poems failed to make strong impressions individually, Wright's style and voice is familiar (the Tennessee stuff) and unfamiliar (everything else) to a degree that I believe seeking out his later output will be rewarding. Recommended.
Each collection shows the language getting sparer. The lines thin and the length of individual poems rarely hit the halfway point on a page. The imagery is still dense with invented compound words and equal references to the foothills of the Smokies in Tennessee and the Alps in Northern Italy. Most of these poems feel serial, but I'm not sure what they add up to.
I don't know how often I will return to these, many times I felt I was just letting my eyes wash over the page without really knowing what I was reading, but my interest in Wright is piqued. Even if these poems failed to make strong impressions individually, Wright's style and voice is familiar (the Tennessee stuff) and unfamiliar (everything else) to a degree that I believe seeking out his later output will be rewarding. Recommended.