juliannealkire's review
5.0
I discovered Theodore Rothke's poetry in college, and, although I was enchanted by it, I didn't really have the time to sit around, musing about poetry. However, at a recent library book sale, I found a slim paperback of The Far Field and delightedly threw it into my $1 bag of books. I took it home, set it on my messy overflow bookshelf, and kept promising myself that I'd read it (along with the 30+ other books on that shelf.) There it sat, untouched until I decided that this year I was going to observe the "Icelandic tradition" circulating on the internet where people read books and eat chocolate on Christmas Eve night. I told my sister about it and which book I intended to read (THIS ONE!), and she even wrapped it up for me so I could "open" it and then enjoy it with the dark chocolate I purchased for myself.
10/10 highly recommend staying up on Christmas Eve & reading while eating chocolate. It's as amazing as it sounds. And it definitely helped that I had such wonderful writing for my company. I fell in love with Rothke's nature descriptions when I first discovered his poetry, and those are still some of my favorite parts. But in my (not at all professional) opinion, he's a fairly flawless poet. JUST LOOK at these beautiful lines:
"Being, not doing, is my first joy."
Or these:
"My wrath, where's the edge
Of the fine shapely thought
That I carried so long
When so young, when so young?"
OR THIS ONE:
"What does what it should do needs nothing more."
Two small content advisories if you're thinking about reading this book: Please remember that this is poetry. It's sensuous. There's one poem that is super obviously referring to sex, although he doesn't describe it in any detail. AND there are several poems where he's talking about being reincarnated, so if that weirds you out this might not be for you. Neither of these things diminished my enjoyment of this book in the least, and I'm hanging on to my paperback so I can read my favorites again and again.
10/10 highly recommend staying up on Christmas Eve & reading while eating chocolate. It's as amazing as it sounds. And it definitely helped that I had such wonderful writing for my company. I fell in love with Rothke's nature descriptions when I first discovered his poetry, and those are still some of my favorite parts. But in my (not at all professional) opinion, he's a fairly flawless poet. JUST LOOK at these beautiful lines:
"Being, not doing, is my first joy."
Or these:
"My wrath, where's the edge
Of the fine shapely thought
That I carried so long
When so young, when so young?"
OR THIS ONE:
"What does what it should do needs nothing more."
Two small content advisories if you're thinking about reading this book: Please remember that this is poetry. It's sensuous. There's one poem that is super obviously referring to sex, although he doesn't describe it in any detail. AND there are several poems where he's talking about being reincarnated, so if that weirds you out this might not be for you. Neither of these things diminished my enjoyment of this book in the least, and I'm hanging on to my paperback so I can read my favorites again and again.
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