mariefleurie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.75
le0manchmal's review against another edition
5.0
took my time but devoured it in perfect portions, i love her
nora_bom's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
kristenmtan's review against another edition
5.0
5/5!!!
(hm. am being more generous w the 5s lately! anyway)
first louise gluck!!! big fan so far. going to get more of her poetry asap. will be reading this again because i can't imagine everything that falls out of these poems when unfolded properly. they're enjoyable without much thought (as i read them pretty leisurely) but i think i'm going to get other people to read this collection so we can think about it and see what happens!! highly recommend + very excited to read more of her work!
(hm. am being more generous w the 5s lately! anyway)
first louise gluck!!! big fan so far. going to get more of her poetry asap. will be reading this again because i can't imagine everything that falls out of these poems when unfolded properly. they're enjoyable without much thought (as i read them pretty leisurely) but i think i'm going to get other people to read this collection so we can think about it and see what happens!! highly recommend + very excited to read more of her work!
chluless's review against another edition
5.0
Fugue. No poem has ever or will ever make me as unwell as Fugue.
sirfrankiecrisp's review against another edition
This collection of poems, Averno, its strength lies in its whole, each of the poems come together in one unifying blanket and years seem to pass, summer rolls onto autumn and winter to spring, again-again-again... as we experience, wholly, the poet.
Louise Glück is able to appear spectre-thin afloat in no great control of herself, self-mirroring that of Persophone - something seems to have been taken from her: her life? her soul? or from somewhere? to where? willingly? - Whatever it is there's an immense feeling of emptiness, an uncertainty; and as a result an extended lamentation to life itself.
death cannot harm me
more than you have harmed me,
my beloved life.
(from 'October')
She is faced with the inevitable, cyclical nature of life and death:
On one side, the soul wanders.
One the other, human beings living in fear.
In between, the pit of disappearance.
(from 'Averno')
of Time and Memory;
from burning snow-capped peaks
Behind the trees, at sunset, it is as though a great fire
is burning between two mountains
so that the snow on the highest precipice
seems, for a moment, to be burning also.
(from 'Landscape')
to lakeside summer nights and frozen over again come winter;
And haply the sun and moon shine again and again, seeds planted-cultivated-planted, a relentless unchanging-changing.
silence and dreams - have we perverted the cycle of life and death?
womanhood and the lost purity of the child she once was;
and ultimately, the futility of this brief, ever changing yet always the same-same-same pathetic life - to be in its torrent, floating pale and thinned from days of sun and days of pain. She grows tired and weary. On and On and On. Muted and dulled.
In the silence of consciousness I asked myself:
why did I reject my life? And I answer
Die Erde überwältigt mich:
the earth defeats me.
(from 'Landscape')
Though, for every dull feeling of pain, beauty subsists - as bronze spears pierce out of the clouded sky. In every line, the sublime presence of nature casts a great shade...
What others found in art,
I found in nature. What others found
in human love, I found in nature.
Very simple. But there was no voice there.
Winter was over. In the thawed dirt,
bits of green were showing.
(from 'October')
And into Averno we descend to death...
I will keep this one with me.
"All her life had been an error, she was futile" - Clarice Lispector, Near to the Wild Heart
Louise Glück is able to appear spectre-thin afloat in no great control of herself, self-mirroring that of Persophone - something seems to have been taken from her: her life? her soul? or from somewhere? to where? willingly? - Whatever it is there's an immense feeling of emptiness, an uncertainty; and as a result an extended lamentation to life itself.
death cannot harm me
more than you have harmed me,
my beloved life.
(from 'October')
She is faced with the inevitable, cyclical nature of life and death:
On one side, the soul wanders.
One the other, human beings living in fear.
In between, the pit of disappearance.
(from 'Averno')
of Time and Memory;
from burning snow-capped peaks
Behind the trees, at sunset, it is as though a great fire
is burning between two mountains
so that the snow on the highest precipice
seems, for a moment, to be burning also.
(from 'Landscape')
to lakeside summer nights and frozen over again come winter;
And haply the sun and moon shine again and again, seeds planted-cultivated-planted, a relentless unchanging-changing.
silence and dreams - have we perverted the cycle of life and death?
womanhood and the lost purity of the child she once was;
and ultimately, the futility of this brief, ever changing yet always the same-same-same pathetic life - to be in its torrent, floating pale and thinned from days of sun and days of pain. She grows tired and weary. On and On and On. Muted and dulled.
In the silence of consciousness I asked myself:
why did I reject my life? And I answer
Die Erde überwältigt mich:
the earth defeats me.
(from 'Landscape')
Though, for every dull feeling of pain, beauty subsists - as bronze spears pierce out of the clouded sky. In every line, the sublime presence of nature casts a great shade...
What others found in art,
I found in nature. What others found
in human love, I found in nature.
Very simple. But there was no voice there.
Winter was over. In the thawed dirt,
bits of green were showing.
(from 'October')
And into Averno we descend to death...
I will keep this one with me.
"All her life had been an error, she was futile" - Clarice Lispector, Near to the Wild Heart