Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
William Matthews had completed AFTER ALL shortly before his death, just after his fifty-fifth birthday, in November 1997. In many poems in this collection, Matthews seems to be looking his last on all things appealing: music, food and wine, and love among them. He also evokes the death of his favorite jazz musician, Charles Mingus, speaks of cats, dogs, history—and especially, with his characteristic relaxed wit, of language and its quiddities.
Synopsis
...Listen,
my wary one, it's far too late
to unlove each other. Instead let's cook
something elaborate and not invite anyone to share it but eat it
all up very slowly.
--from "Misgivings"
This is the touchingly entitled collection of poems William Matthews completed shortly before dying, just after his 55th birthday in November 1997. Is death ever entirely unexpected? Not, perhaps, by a collector of experience, a gourmand of language, who can refer to 'death flickering in you like a pilot light.' In After All Matthews seems to be looking his last on all things lovely: music, food, wine, and love. In the stunning central poem, 'Dire Cure,' which forms a kind of spine to the book, he describes the remarkable implications of the 'heroic measures' that saved the life and restored the health of his wife from 'a children's cancer (doesn't that possessive break your heart?).' He evokes the death of his favorite jazz musician, Charles Mingus. He speaks of cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, of the past, of history, of joys proposed, but especially, with his characteristic relaxed wit, of language and its quiddities: 'My love says I think too damn much and maybe she's right.' After All is the last word from one of the most pensive and delicious of all our poets.
American Book Review - Rick Pernod
William Matthews poem After All is a wonderful testament to the burgeoning of everything alive, including the imagination, and ultimately, it is about the artistic process and poetry itself. The reader is shown that in a William Matthews poem, emotional force is not going to come at the expense of intelligence or sophistication, where it is a poem about romantic love or not. His complexity is what makes his poetry interesting and gives it the integrity that richly rewards the diligent reader.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"An extraordinarily important American poet."—Gerald Stern"A lovely finale." Library Journal
Rick Pernod
William Matthews poem After All is a wonderful testament to the burgeoning of everything alive, including the imagination, and ultimately, it is about the artistic process and poetry itself. The reader is shown that in a William Matthews poem, emotional force is not going to come at the expense of intelligence or sophistication, where it is a poem about romantic love or not. His complexity is what makes his poetry interesting and gives it the integrity that richly rewards the diligent reader.— American Book Review