Natural History: Poems

by Dan Chiasson

Book Overview

Dan Chiasson, hailed as "one of the most gifted poets of his generation" upon the appearance of his first book, takes inspiration for his stunning new collection from the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder.

"What happens next, you won't believe," Chiasson writes in "From the Life of Gorky," and it is fair warning. This collection suggests that a person is like a world, full of mysteries and wonders-and equally in need of an encyclopedia,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375711155
• ISBN13: 9780375711152
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.9" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Makes Pliny the Elder Hot.

I like these poems alot. I am for poems that play with History, Pliny, Love, and Elephants. If you like Juan Ruiz, Antonio Porchia, Hesiod or Rumi, you will like these poems. They are very sneaky. They seemed like quick reads, but then they haunted me for more minutes and today. I'll stop talking so you can see what I mean. "When I say 'you' in my poems I mean you. I know it's weird: we barely met." --Natural History

Skillful and irreverent

As a poet, Chiasson is patient. He's not in a rush to take you anywhere and in turn, you are in no rush to go. You merely accompany him through the garden of anthropomorphic metaphors he has cultivated for you. You traipse through topiary mazes of the meta-poetic, follow the winding paths of form; you push on when he picks up the path and puts it in his pocket. His poems exhibit melancholy, irreverence, surrealism, and a strong intimacy and these are all part of what makes Chiasson so easy to read once, and so desirable to read twice. To read more reviews check out Void Magazine's website.