Poetry - General & Miscellaneous, Australasian & Oceanian Poetry
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Overview
The centerpiece of this collection of poems is "Presence," a sequence of forty "translations from the natural world" about a variety of settings and their amazing denizens. Lyre birds, honeycombs, sea lions, possums, all act as spurs for Murray's protean talent for description and imitation.
Editorials
Library Journal
Even with a score of volumes and a king's ransom of literary honors to his credit, Australian poet Murray refuses to take words for granted. His latest collection is a forceful blend of formalism and experimentation, a test of imagination, ear, and tongue for both poet and reader. Framed by several intricate but conventional genre poems (travel narrative, epithalamion) is a sequence of 40 lyrics delivered in the imagined inner voices of nonhuman beings, from pig (``Us snored the earth hollow, filled farrow, grunted'') to DNA molecule (``I am the singular/ in free fall./ I and my doubles/carry it all''). Mixing the linguistic reach of Hopkins with the eerie solemnity of Ted Hughes, Murray demonstrates that while ``Nothing is apart enough for language,'' nature can never seem more alien than when cast in human terms.-- Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, N.Y.Book Details
Published
February 1, 1994
Publisher
New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1994.
Pages
67
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780374278700