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    The Shadow of Sirius

    3.6 6

    by W. S. Merwin

    Paperback

    (Reprint)

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    • ISBN-13: 9781556593109
    • Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
    • Publication date: 10/01/2009
    • Edition description: Reprint
    • Pages: 130
    • Sales rank: 262,759
    • Product dimensions: 6.04(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)

    W.S. Merwin is the author of over fifty books of poetry, prose, and translations. He has earned every major literary prize, most recently the National Book Award for Migration: New and Selected Poems. He lives in Hawaii where he raised endangered palm trees.

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    Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

    Featured on NPR's "Fresh Air" and "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS.

    Honored as one of the "Best Books of the Year" from Publishers Weekly.

    "A collection of luminous, often tender poems that focus on the profound power of memory." —Pulitzer Prize Committee

    "In his personal anonymity, his strict individuated manner, his defense of the earth, and his heartache at time's passing, Merwin has become instantly recognizable on the page; he has made for himself that most difficult of creations, an accomplished style." —Helen Vendler, The New York Review of Books

    “Merwin is one of the great poets of our age.”— Los Angeles Times Book Review

    "[The Shadow of Sirius is] the very best of all Merwin: I have been reading William since 1952, and always with joy." —Harold Bloom

    "[Merwin's] best book in a decade—and one of the best outright... The poems... feel fresh and awake with a simplicity that can only be called wisdom." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

    "Merwin's gentle wisdom and attentiveness to the world are alive as ever. These deeply reflective meditations move through light and darkness, old love and turning seasons to probe the core of human existence." — Orion

    "[The Shadow of Sirius] shows the earthly possibilities of simple completeness in a writer's mature work. More than an achievement in poetry, this is an achievement in writing." — Harvard Review

    The nuanced mysteries of light, darkness, presence, and memory are central themes in W.S. Merwin’s new book of poems. “I have only what I remember,” Merwin admits, and his memories are focused and profound—the distinct qualities of autumn light, a conversation with a boyhood teacher, well-cultivated loves, and “our long evenings and astonishment.” In “Photographer,” Merwin presents the scene where armloads of antique glass negatives are saved from a dumpcart by “someone who understood.” In “Empty Lot,” Merwin evokes a child lying in bed at night, listening to the muffled dynamite blasts of coal mining near his home, and we can’t help but ask: How shall we mine our lives?

    somewhere the Perseids are falling
    toward us already at a speed that would
    burn us alive if we could believe it
    but in the stillness after the rain ends
    nothing is to be heard but the drops falling

    W.S. Merwin , author of over fifty books, is America’s foremost poet. His last two books were honored with major literary awards: Migration won the National Book Award, and Present Company received the Bobbitt Prize from the Library of Congress.

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    Related Subjects

    Awards
    Literature
    Poetry
    American Poetry
    21st Century American Poetry
    Other American Poetry
    American poetry->21st century
    American poetry->Male authors
    Soils->Scotland->Girvan region
    2001-2010->Poetry->Pulitzer Prize
    2009 Pulitzer Prize Winners
    Publishers Weekly's Best Poetry of 2008
    Awards
    Literature
    Poetry
    American Poetry
    21st Century American Poetry
    Other American Poetry
    American poetry->21st century
    American poetry->Male authors
    Soils->Scotland->Girvan region
    2001-2010->Poetry->Pulitzer Prize
    2009 Pulitzer Prize Winners
    Publishers Weekly's Best Poetry of 2008
    From the Publisher
    "W.S. Merwin is one of the great poets of our age."—Los Angeles Times Book Review "[In] any landscape, Merwin stands tall."—Philadelphia Inquirer "Complex, spiritual, and evocative, Merwin is a major poet, and this is a sublime measure of his achievements."—Booklist "W. S. Merwin's legacy is unquestionably secure: his best and most fierce poems are moody, visionary compositions that dive into the unconscious and the seeds of existence."—Poetry
    Stephen Burt
    As in all of his verse since the late 1960s, Merwin does away with punctuation, letting line breaks and sense determine syntax and pace. The results suggest whispers, laments, accounts of long-ago memories, even voices from an underworld
    —The New York Times
    Library Journal
    Having published over 50 books since 1952, Merwin could be excused for resting on his laurels. Instead, he continues to work hard, here offering poems clearly formed in a refiner's fire. "Somewhere the Perseids are falling/ but in the stillness after the rain ends/ nothing is to be heard but the drops falling." Wisely, without bitterness, these poems capture that essential stillness.


    —Barbara Hoffert
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