44 review for The First Five Books of Poems (Poetry Pleiade)

1. 

   4 out of 5

   Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer – Jan 05, 2021

   This volume was published by the 2020 Noble Laureate's UK publisher - Carcanet Press and includes (as the title suggests) Louise Gluck's first five collections. it also has a brief introduction where the author sets out her thoughts on each collection - and in particular what she took from each to inform her writing of the next collection. The collections themselves grow in stature in maturity as you might expect - but 5* for the overall experience of the collection as an insight to the first 25- This volume was published by the 2020 Noble Laureate's UK publisher - Carcanet Press and includes (as the title suggests) Louise Gluck's first five collections. it also has a brief introduction where the author sets out her thoughts on each collection - and in particular what she took from each to inform her writing of the next collection. The collections themselves grow in stature in maturity as you might expect - but 5* for the overall experience of the collection as an insight to the first 25-30 years of the author's work. I have added my reviews of the individual collections below First Born (1968) - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... House on the Marshland (1975) - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Descending Figure (1980)- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... The Triumph of Achilles (1985) -https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Ararat (1990) - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

2. 

   5 out of 5

   saïd – Feb 05, 2020

   from THE TRIUMPH OF ACHILLESWhat were the Greek ships on fire compared to this loss? In his tent, Achilles grieved with his whole being and the gods saw he was a man already dead, a victim of the part that loved, the part that was mortal.

3. 

   5 out of 5

   Gabriel Clarke – Jan 28, 2018

   There are lovely lines, lovely individual moments in the first books. But The Triumph Of Achilles contains some plain-spoken meditations on death that pinch and prick and Ararat is the kind of text that reduces sibling relationships to rubble. The form ends up at a kind of plain-spoken version of Robert Hass et al (except she knows when to stop whereas Hass will just go on and on and on) but the message is chilling and brutal - to love in a family is to endure pain; death is all that awaits; hum There are lovely lines, lovely individual moments in the first books. But The Triumph Of Achilles contains some plain-spoken meditations on death that pinch and prick and Ararat is the kind of text that reduces sibling relationships to rubble. The form ends up at a kind of plain-spoken version of Robert Hass et al (except she knows when to stop whereas Hass will just go on and on and on) but the message is chilling and brutal - to love in a family is to endure pain; death is all that awaits; human relationships are structured by the nature of their misunderstandings. These poems offer cold comfort but compellingly so.

4. 

   4 out of 5

   kim – Jan 16, 2017

   http://winterlief.blogspot.nl/2016/12... http://winterlief.blogspot.nl/2016/12...

5. 

   4 out of 5

   Marie – Oct 26, 2021

   Objevila jsem Louise díky časopisu Host a jsem vděčná za toto setkání. Last winter he could barely speak. I moved his crib to face the window: in the dark mornings he would stand and grip the bars until the walls appeared, calling light, light, that one syllable, in demand of recognition.

6. 

   5 out of 5

   Sienna – May 04, 2013

   The copy I got out from the library is actually labelled The First Five Books of Poems. Like this version, it contains Firstborn (1968), The House on Marshland (1975), Descending Figure (1980), The Triumph of Achilles (1985) and Ararat (1990). It smells like dust-gathering crayons that have melted and resolidified. This may have detracted from my reading experience. The first book did little for me — too many fragments. But I loved The House on Marshland. Favorites include "Gratitude," "Poem," "T The copy I got out from the library is actually labelled The First Five Books of Poems. Like this version, it contains Firstborn (1968), The House on Marshland (1975), Descending Figure (1980), The Triumph of Achilles (1985) and Ararat (1990). It smells like dust-gathering crayons that have melted and resolidified. This may have detracted from my reading experience. The first book did little for me — too many fragments. But I loved The House on Marshland. Favorites include "Gratitude," "Poem," "The Undertaking" and "Under Taurus." And, most of all, "The Pond": Night covers the pond with its wing. Under the ringed moon I can make out your face swimming among minnows and the small echoing stars. In the night air the surface of the pond is metal. Within, your eyes are open. They contain a memory I recognize, as though we had been children together. Our ponies grazed on the hill, they were gray with white markings. Now they graze with the dead who wait like children under their granite breastplates, lucid and helpless: The hills are far away. They rise up blacker than childhood. What do you think of, lying so quietly by the water? When you look that way I want to touch you, but do not, seeing as in another life we were of the same blood. Though published the year I was born — surely we should share some kind of bond, this book and I — the third collection resonated with me less. "The Fear of Love," part of "The Garden," is the only highlight I noted. I preferred The Triumph of Achilles, with its predictably classical leanings: the title poem tackles the living and the dead in memory, in story; "Mythic Fragment" transforms pursuit into escape, looking away instead of back. In "The Beginning" (part of "Marathon"), dream logic bestows blood oranges and childhood freedom, if you can call it that, upon the bereft. I particularly liked "The Reproach" and "The Embrace." The final collection, about being a daughter, a sister, a mother, an aunt, a niece, a cousin: this made me sad and weighed me down with its sharp, sometimes sniping assessments. If they're true... but I hope they aren't, not always, not entirely, and I'm glad my family is nothing like this. I did gasp at three of these poems and wonder: "The Untrustworthy Speaker", "Confession" and "First Memory": Long ago, I was wounded. I lived to revenge myself against my father, not for what he was — for what I was: from the beginning of time, in childhood, I thought that pain meant I was not loved. It meant I loved. This is a dense compilation, and I'd really only recommend it to those who've already fallen under Glück's spell and are well acquainted with her work, who are likely to get more out of the twenty-two years of love and loss and stylistic development it offers. For everyone else, start with one. Choose it carefully and savor it.

7. 

   5 out of 5

   Timothy –

8. 

   5 out of 5

   Peter King –

9. 

   4 out of 5

   Maria –

10. 

    4 out of 5

    Peycho Kanev –

11. 

    5 out of 5

    Adriana Scarpin –

12. 

    4 out of 5

    Vale Aida –

13. 

    5 out of 5

    Monica Manolachi –

14. 

    5 out of 5

    Fran –

15. 

    4 out of 5

    Ren –

16. 

    4 out of 5

    Just Zack –

17. 

    5 out of 5

    Tricia Sams –

18. 

    5 out of 5

    Antonio –

19. 

    4 out of 5

    Clelio Toffoli –

20. 

    5 out of 5

    Colin Garahy –

21. 

    5 out of 5

    JasonHew –

22. 

    4 out of 5

    mary –

23. 

    5 out of 5

    Izzy Carey –

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    5 out of 5

    Daniela –

25. 

    4 out of 5

    ece –

26. 

    5 out of 5

    soffi –

27. 

    4 out of 5

    Rose –

28. 

    5 out of 5

    Maureen –

29. 

    4 out of 5

    Finn –

30. 

    4 out of 5

    Blue Inessa –

31. 

    5 out of 5

    Lisa Christian –

32. 

    4 out of 5

    Sara –

33. 

    5 out of 5

    BookDB –

34. 

    5 out of 5

    Roos –

35. 

    5 out of 5

    Brittany –

36. 

    5 out of 5

    Luke –

37. 

    5 out of 5

    Mona –

38. 

    5 out of 5

    Alexis –

39. 

    5 out of 5

    Helen Damnation –

40. 

    4 out of 5

    Emily Johnson –

41. 

    5 out of 5

    Bea –

42. 

    4 out of 5

    Rebecca –

43. 

    5 out of 5

    wh' –

44. 

    4 out of 5

    Taghreed Ahmed –