This Time: New and Selected Poems

Rating:
Summary: An exquisite collection of in-depth poetry
Review: Gerald Stern is a renowned Pennsylvania author having received the following awards: Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Lamont Poetry Prize, grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the best poem award from the American Poetry Review in 1996, and a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. His works are symbolistic, and to truly understand a poem, one may have to read it at least three times. Titles such as "Orange Roses," "I Remember Galileo," "The Unity," "Your Animal," "Shad," "Eggshell," "All I Have Are the Tracks," "A Song for the Romeos," and "Silver Hand" are just a few of this extensive aggregation that mystifies and creates a sensational experience for the mind. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is searching for true poetry, poetry that touches the heart, poetry that creates an impact on the way you look at the world around you.

Rating:
Summary: Poems that don't rhyme
Review: Historic well-known poets wrote in rhyme (Longfellow, Kipling, Service, etc.). Gerald Stern writes in free-form expressing lines of thought. Realistically, it is the thought that counts as translations would rarely rhyme. Beowulf, for example, does not rhyme in modern English (modern translations are taken from a version written in Old English, but the original story of Beowulf seems to be set somewhere in Denmark circa 500 AD). Readers debating differences between poets are referred to Robert Service's "Pullman Porter."
It is difficult to rate a large collection of poems because of the wide variation. This collection of Stern's poems, like other collections, will have some you will like more than others. They are mostly from collections published at various times in the past, and are arranged chronilogically from 1973 to new poems from 1997. There are various opinions on the arrangement of large collections, some readers preferring similar themes grouped together. You can never satisfy everyone.
Overall, this is a good collection spanning a significant part of the author's life.

Rating:
Summary: Poems that don't rhyme
Review: Historic well-known poets wrote in rhyme (Longfellow, Kipling, Service, etc.). Gerald Stern writes in free-form expressing lines of thought. Realistically, it is the thought that counts as translations would rarely rhyme. Beowulf, for example, does not rhyme in modern English (modern translations are taken from a version written in Old English, but the original story of Beowulf seems to be set somewhere in Denmark circa 500 AD). Readers debating differences between poets are referred to Robert Service's "Pullman Porter."
It is difficult to rate a large collection of poems because of the wide variation. This collection of Stern's poems, like other collections, will have some you will like more than others. They are mostly from collections published at various times in the past, and are arranged chronilogically from 1973 to new poems from 1997. There are various opinions on the arrangement of large collections, some readers preferring similar themes grouped together. You can never satisfy everyone.
Overall, this is a good collection spanning a significant part of the author's life.

Rating:
Summary: Mundane into Magnificence
Review: Reading a Gerald Stern poem is hitching a ride on a boomerang built with words. One is going to be taken on an exhilarating emotional ride through space and then returned gently to earth not quite the same person. Many compare Stern to Whitman because of his humanity which makes his work accessible and memorable. He is a magician who turns the mundane into magnificence by writing with his whole being. A master poet who doesn't tell about experiences, rather, he shares them with his readers. Keep this book by the bedtable and dream along with these poems.