Wild Iris

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Summary: A beautiful account of garden poetry.
Review: Close your eyes and walk outside, to your garden- careful not to stub your toe. You have just entered the vast world of Louise Gluck's "The Wild Iris. You will be taken through a journey, meet her family and be introduced to the author herself. Lousie Gluck has created a wonderful comment on life, family and relationships by looking out her livingroom window to the wild iris that grows in so many American families. She is a poet, a mother, a wife and above all else a gardener. One is shocked to see that everything from God and creation, to love and happiness can be found in a small patch of cultivated land. Her work seems influenced by the Bible and Greek literature, but her greatest resourse is life itself. She seems a stern woman at times, complex and moody and there are moments when the reader thanks his lucky tomato plant that he is only her reader and not her son or husband, for her self concern does not spill, and one belives that her loved ones may be thirsty. As a reader, however, I was introduced to a smart and sasy woman, who cared for herself with a passion I wish all had. Mrs. Gluck is a woman with and despite her family and husband; she gardens not because the family needs the food, but rather for a more important reason: her soul needs the soil, it needs to cultivate, grow and become real. Whether or not Mrs. Gluck's luck in the garden came through, her skill in her poetry shines above trite metephores (who knew one could say so much about a simple patch of dirt). She is a talented woman, and I enjoyed the journey that she led me through. Perhaps next time we could go to the zoo and speak of the oppressed society, or even to K-Mart for a chat about urban economics; I'm sure the poet's ablities would not be stifled under any circumbstances.

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Summary: Wonderful Portrait of Life Struggling with Illusion
Review: I loved this book! I picked this collection of transcendant poems while a senior in high school and was enthralled with its poignancy. I was able to relate to the character's questioning of an omnipresent God as well as the pain they faced when considering the possibilities of a harsh, uncaring "other" in the Heavens. Completely fulfilling and a joy to read!

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Summary: Standout from the crowd
Review: I read this book for a university intro to poetry class. I had never read much real poetry before this class, so I had no choice but to approach this book with the beginner's mind. I must say that out of all of the great poetry we read in class, this book had my favorite selections in it. It inspired wonderful conversation about the idea of God, the capacity for nature to teach us new things, and the way that many humans don't seem to understand the world that they live in. There is no fixed voice here, at times the persona is God observing his creation, or it is the mind of a flower or a plant and at other times it is a despairing, confused and frustrated human. It is not always clear which voice each poem is written in, as God and human voices both sound like the plant voice sometimes and vice versa. This makes the plant voice something like the middle ground where God and the humans could communicate if only they knew how. All in all the balance of the three different styles of poetry blend together into a cohesive whole that really should be read as one related theme. Within all of that, there are images in this book that I think will either inspire or haunt you, or both. This is what I had imagined great poetry to be. This book defies the cliches about what nature poetry should be like and establishes a vivid and beautiful alternative world that is actually right before our eyes.

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Summary: Poetry at its most honest and pure
Review: If you read any poetry this year, read this book.

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Summary: Elegantly Complex
Review: Iris is an elegant and noble flower even if it is a wild one.Ms. Glück sends us flowers of pain, love and dream.They come in thin bundles but mean so much...

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Summary: iT WAS SO ENJOYABLE. VERY INTIMATE AND EMOTIONAL.
Review: lOUISE gLUCK HAS PUT TOGETHER A FASCINATING GROUP OF POEMS THAT SPEAK FROM HER HEART. hER USE OF NATURE HAD A GREAT RELATIONSHIP TO FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS.

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Summary: A very important book
Review: One of the best books of poetry I've ever read. Each time I pick it up I am newly astounded at the elegance and beauitfully contained passion of these poems. Encompassing a summer of growth, change, and conversations with God in the original Holy place, a garden, this book is well deserving of its Pulitzer Prize, and of being read many times over.

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Summary: A Fascinating Collection of Poems
Review: The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck is an intriguing collection of poems centered around life forms which seem to be present in her garden. She has interwoven her own personal experience and feelings into the poem, often, I felt, projecting her views onto the subjects of her poems. I finished reading the poems with the impression that I had learned a good deal about the author personally. On many occasions, she brought her husband and son by name into her poems revealing a little about the different relationships she experiences daily. She has a fascinating perspective on life and the collection is well worth taking a look at.

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Summary: The culmination of Gluck's writing
Review: The Wild Iris by Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Glück combines images of flowers and gardening with emotions of spiritual longing, despair, and frustration. This is the first book of poem I've read by the poet, and honestly, I would not recommend it to a friend because there are few poems that I truly enjoyed reading. My problem with this collection for me is that many of the poems rely on the reader being able to recognize the names of flowers and their meanings or what they symbolize. Lacking this knowledge, I sat with my dictionary trying to decipher what the flora in question looked like and figuring out the flora's possible other meaning, such as roses are associated with love and lilies are associated with mourning. The imagery and meanings of "The Jacob's Ladder" and "The Gold Lily" worked for me (once I learned Jacob's Ladder is a type of phlox plant), but others like "Snowdrops" and "Clover" were more work than they were worth. Also the use of the canonical expression "Matins" did not work as well with its poems as "Vespers" did with its poems. "Vespers," at least, dealt with the evening of the Seasons, Fall, or with the twilight of a person's life. "Matins" had no relation to the Season's morning or a human being's morning in any forms. I'm glad I read this book for the simple reason I can learn from what I liked and disliked and use this in my own writings.

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Summary: First time reader not thrilled ...
Review: The Wild Iris by Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Glück combines images of flowers and gardening with emotions of spiritual longing, despair, and frustration. This is the first book of poem I've read by the poet, and honestly, I would not recommend it to a friend because there are few poems that I truly enjoyed reading. My problem with this collection for me is that many of the poems rely on the reader being able to recognize the names of flowers and their meanings or what they symbolize. Lacking this knowledge, I sat with my dictionary trying to decipher what the flora in question looked like and figuring out the flora's possible other meaning, such as roses are associated with love and lilies are associated with mourning. The imagery and meanings of "The Jacob's Ladder" and "The Gold Lily" worked for me (once I learned Jacob's Ladder is a type of phlox plant), but others like "Snowdrops" and "Clover" were more work than they were worth. Also the use of the canonical expression "Matins" did not work as well with its poems as "Vespers" did with its poems. "Vespers," at least, dealt with the evening of the Seasons, Fall, or with the twilight of a person's life. "Matins" had no relation to the Season's morning or a human being's morning in any forms. I'm glad I read this book for the simple reason I can learn from what I liked and disliked and use this in my own writings.