Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness

Rating:
Summary: as many stars as are in the sky...
Review: Carolyn Forche has edited and collected one of the very,very few books that I would not want to be without.the poetry here starts with the Armenian genocide and works up until the Democracy movement in China in the early 90's. From the Shoah to the Russian winter,from the Middle east to the Spanish Civil War Ms. Forche` puts together the famous{Auden, Cummings,Pasternak, Garcia Lorca] to the little known at least here {Natayla Gorbenevskya, Nazim Hikmet...} I believe this to be a book necessary to understand the 20th century, surely the century of dictators and genocide,and also the century of hope and progress for so many...Ms. Forche is to be saluted,and thanked for this staggering,epochal effort.

Rating:
Summary: Too political and patriotic
Review: If you love political and patriotic poems, this book can be a good choice, but such themes are complete turn-off to me. This book comprised of the following chapters: The American genocide, World War I, Revolution and Repression in the Soviet Union, Spanish Civil War, World War II, The Haolocaust, Repression in Eastern and Central Europe, War and Dictatorship in the Demditerranean, War in the Middle East, Repression and Revolution in Latin America, The Struggle for Civil Rights and Civil Leberties in the US, War in Korea and Vietname, Repression in Africa, Revolution and the Struggle for Democracy in China.
I can hardly believe that these are poetries. These are simply political phrases disguised using poetry form. All the poems are so boring to appreciate. I find that it is much better to read the books relavant to each chapter. I regret that I wasted money and time on this book. In fact, I threw this book to trash.

Rating:
Summary: Poetry of hope and suffering
Review: Please take the time to read a few of the sample poems. This book is a profound and moving account of suffering, loss, longing and hope that really hit home. THe poems will speak for themselves.

Hermann Hesse's "Poems" is also along this same line of thought and it is available in translation with the German on the facing page.

Rating:
Summary: moving accounts of personal experience and loss
Review: This book has done so much to call us not to forget our own humanity. The impersonal power of war, the dehumanization of violent death at the hands of other humans- such tragedies as these call us to remember who we are as humans. It is one of the peculiarities of life that it is often at the brink of destruction that we see most clearly what our hearts have always spoken to us. In the violence of war and conflict, our thoughts often return to the simple things of life; the laughter of a child who lived next door, the smell of spring, the faces of old schoolmates.

This collection of poetry serves its title well. Only one poem spoken aptly to our heart calls us to our true selves, against forgetting.

You may also find the poems of Hermann Hesse of importance in this regard, along with the Penguin Book of First World War Poetry.

Rating:
Summary: Empowering! _The_ guide to peaceful resistance
Review: This volume was the focus of a poetry course (taught by Daniel Berrigan, whose poems are included in the text) I took as an undergrad. Unlike most college texts of which I have since disposed, _Against Forgetting_ easily became a cherished part of my library. This brilliant anthology is compiled with great respect and admiration for those remarkable individuals whose poetry it contains. It is a testament to human strengths, weaknesses, victories and failures, selfless love and senseless cruelty. Most importantly, it is illustrative of the unmistakably triumphant power of words woven into lines and stanzas. And, as such, this collection is incredibly empowering and inspiring. Needless to say, it is also a tribute to all who have ever perished in bitter wars and torturous exile... The poets whose work appears herein give voice, by extention, to those whose thoughts and speech were muffled and will never be heard.

Each section opens with an introduction to the era and the theme(i.e. "The Holocaust", "Repression in Eastern and Central Europe", "War in the Middle East"), and a very short biographical piece accompanies each poet's selection.

Wislawa Szymborska's "Children of the Epoch" ('We are children of the epoch. The epoch is political...') reflects many of the sentiments expressed throughout the entire volume, and is one of my favorites.

Rating:
Summary: "I stand as witness ...
Review: to the common lot, / survivor of that time, that place." Anna Akhmatova, one of the poets included in this anthology, wrote those words in the years before WWII as she struggled to survive, and express, life under Stalin.

Carolyn Forche has assembled this collection of poems, each of which expresses, in their own time and place, witness. This is not an idle witness, a standing by, a cool, detached observance. Forche writes in her introduction, "Modernity ...is marked by a superstitious worship of oppressive force and by a concomitant reliance on oblivion." The witness of these poets neither worships force nor accepts oblivion.

The effect of reading these poems, written in the face of war, genocide, oppression, despair and racism, even reading one or two at a time as I have been doing, raises the possibility that war, genocide, oppression, despair and racism are abject failures. Whatever their effects, they accomplish nothing. Resistance counts for everything. Pasternak, an included poet, described his novel in words which describe this volume: "besides the importance of described human lots and historical events there is an effort ... to portray the whole sequence of facts and beings and happenings like some moving entireness, like a developing, passing by, rolling and rushing inspiration, as if reality itself had freedom and choice and was composing itself out of numberless varients and versions."

Men and women from every continent give lie in their poems to the sad accusation that 'human dignity' and 'human rights' are 'western' or 'american' ideas imposed on the rest of the world. The oppressors are as likely to be 'western' and 'american' as anyone else. The witnesses "Against Forgetting" are everyone.

Because of witness, because of resistance, hope exists. As another poet (Muriel Rukeyser) suggests: The whole thing - waterfront, war, city, / sons, daughters, me - / Must be re-imagined, / Sun on the orange-red roof.

Great book. Absolutely great.