Overview

In eight extraordinary volumes spanning five decades, Ellen Bryant Voigt has created a body of work distinguished by its formal precision, rigorous intelligence, and meticulous observation of nature, history, and domestic life. From the subtly evocative images of Claiming Kin (1976) to the mosaic of sonnets and voices conjuring a prescient narrative of the 1918 influenza pandemic in Kyrie (1995) to fierce encounters with mortality in the National Book Award finalist Shadow of Heaven (2002) and the propulsive inventions of Headwaters (2013), the evolution of Voigt's astonishing creative and technical mastery is on full display. This definitive collection showcases the brilliant career of ""a quintessential American elegist"" (Katy Didden, Kenyon Review). From ""Apple Tree"" O my soul, it is not a small thing, to have made from three, this one, this one life.

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9781324076247

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Reviews

"""These poems, collected from eight books dating back to 1976, establish Voigt as one of the most proficient and accomplished poets writing today. Infusing narrative with lyric power, these precise, yet visceral entries engage with ordinary people in their strangeness, as well as with animals domesticated and wild.… [E]ach poem achieves, through earned emotion and vision, broader impact. A trained pianist since childhood, Voigt is a musician at heart and a formalist who rarely works in received forms. This rewarding and expansive work does justice to her commendable vision and ear."" -- Publishers Weekly, starred review ""[Ellen Bryant Voigt] aligns herself firmly within the pastoral tradition, following in a direct line behind the likes of Virgil, Clare, Edward Thomas, and especially the darker side of Frost. Like them, she doesn’t apotheosize nature. She knows all too well the travails and tedium of rural life, but also knows its consolations."" -- David Wojahn - On the Sea Wall ""Even for a reader who knows [Voigt’s] individual books well, reading straight through the volume is newly exhilarating. There are enduring consistencies in this poet’s work across the years, both in subject matter and style: a distinctive austerity of manner that never sounds detached and a quietly spectacular precision."" -- Jim Schley - Seven Days"

Author Information

Ellen Bryant Voigt is the author of eight volumes of poetry, including Messenger, a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her numerous honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations. She lives in Vermont.

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