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Title: Selected Poems by Stephane Mallarme, C.F. Macintyre ISBN: 0-520-23478-2 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: May, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Fascinating Meditation on the Relevance of Verlane
Comment: As often is the case with general volumes of poetry, or books available in many editions, a good reveiw necessarily consists of two parts: first a review of the original material, and then a review of the specific edition.
For the original material, Verlaine is an amazing poet. He represents possibly the first and greatest lyrical poet to be initiated into modernity. His lyricism is not baroque, whimsical, or decadent - it is haunted and beautifull. It is like the music of Chopin (as it could be said that Rimbaud's is closer to that of Liszt). He represents a unique tract among the many poetic styles gestating in a Paris newly thrust into what we call modernity. There was the cynical and disolute Baudelaire, the ribald and frenzied Rimbaud, and then the melancholy and lyrical Verlaine. These three writers could easily be seen as a trifecta of greatness: they together represent the principal moods that have dominated literature to follow in their tracks.
The editions of a poets works, however, should certainly be considered independent of the poems themselves. Translation and selection of poems from such a broad body of work is both highly prejudicial, and (perhaps as a result) also creates a unique beauty in each seperate edition.
This edition, though, is a stand out among others available. First, because it probably is the largest English collection of Verlaines work (170 poems or so) and second because it's assembly, tranlations, and annotation reveal a very profound thoughtfullness on the part of the translator and editor, Martin Sorrell.
Most selections of Verlaines work are contrite and myopic, pick only certain early poems which have been translated and anthologized ad nauseum with no greater depth than that of a poem-a-day desk calendar or the litterary equivalent of easy listening music. In contrast, Sorrell's presentation is symphonic. The poems he has selected are true to the life of the poet - complete with ragged edges and blissfull moments.
How could one appreciate Verlaine's true genius if he is only shown in an artificial, sacrine, sanatized way? Sorrell boldly includes a large amount of poems from Verlaine's later work, largely disparaged by other critics, and provides very thoughtfull annotations about the inspirations, impacts, and ultimate relevance of each poem.
In this way Sorrell has created a very thoughtfull meditation on the life and work of Verlaine, and shares it with his audience so even a layman can appreciate it.
There is also a parallel French Text, which I find indespensible. Although not all of the translations are done the same way I would, diversity is what makes literature beautifull, and I am very interested to see the relationship between Sorrell's scholarship of Verlaine's life and the way in which he translates Verlaine's verses. This is a valuable tool not found if you were to simply read a French edition of Verlaine's poems or preuse an anthology.
In the end, this book is a excellent illustration of why translations and collections can be usefull even to people who have already read Verlaine in French.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant, but not always
Comment: Verlaine is perhaps my favourite poet--many of his poems are exceptionally beautiful, salacious even. However he wrote prolifically, and as is often the case with prolific artists, his work is of uneven quality. Nevertheless, at his best, Paul Verlaine's poetry is among the most remarkable that I've ever read. I highly recommend this collection.
Rating: 5
Summary: wonderful
Comment: I first read this collection during Christmas break of my freshman year of college, and have never again had a more powerful experience with poetry. Verlaine is often viewed as the poor man's accomplice of Rimbaud; MacIntyre, the translator of this volume, is often dismissed as an awkward versifier. I regard both assessments as absurd.
Verlaine is not as close as Rimbaud to the free verse dogma of recent decades, but precisely for this reason he plays a vintage music in his poems, mixing whimsical subject matter with rock-solid traditional verse forms. (I don't agree that he did better work after his encounter with Rimbaud-- far from it, in fact.) Consider this lovely, even haunting refrain:
In the ennui unending
of the flat land,
the vague snow descending
shines like sand.
With no gleam of light
in the copper sky,
one imagines he might
see the moon live and die.
Wind-broken crow
and starving wolves too,
when sharp winds blow
what happens to you?
In the ennui unending
of the flat land,
the vague snow descending
shines like sand.
This sort of melodic drollery is mastered by nobody in the history of poetry like Verlaine, and MacIntyre is just the man to capture it. (He also does fine versions of the early Rilke.)
Don't miss this volume!
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Title: Rimbaud Complete Works: Selected Letters by Fowlie Wallace, Jean Nicholas Arthur Rimbaud ISBN: 0226719731 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: July, 1966 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Flowers of Evil (Oxford World's Classics) by James McGowan, Charles P. Baudelaire, Jonathan Culler ISBN: 0192835459 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Collected Poems by Stephane Mallarme, Henry Weinfield ISBN: 0520207114 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: November, 1996 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat by N Rimbaud, Arthur Rimbaud, Louise Varese ISBN: 0811201856 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: February, 1988 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Selected Poetry and Prose by Stephane Mallarme, Mary Ann Caws ISBN: 0811208230 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: April, 1982 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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