Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems

by Marilyn Nelson and Marilyn Nelson Waniek

Book Overview

In The Fields of Praise, Marilyn Nelson claims as subjects the life of the spirit, the vicissitudes of love, and the African American experience and arranges them as white pebbles marking our common journey toward a "monstrous love / that wants to make the world right." Nelson is a poet of stunning power, able to bring alive the most rarified and subtle of experiences. A slave destined to become a minister preaches sermons of heartrending eloquence...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807121754
• ISBN13: 9780807121757
• Release Date: May 1997
• Publisher: LSU Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

good collection

nelson's collection as a whole is pretty good, though it does drop off a bit in the hermitage section. her poems are poems of home and family and spirituality. it's a good selection of her work.

A Mother's Insight

Marilyn Neslon's The Fields of Praise is a book about motherhood. She is a refreshing turn from the sexually explicit yet uninterpretable poetry that pervades modern day poetry. The compassionate and romantic pieces in her book are generally directed towards children. Though her poems often express fear and concern, they are not exploding with the dark, depressing diction of utter despair that pervades current poetry. She brings the reader into the real world of a loving heart without beating the reader over the head with fraudulent fervor or suffocating the reader with meloncholy. As a mother hunts down and abolishes anything she feels will harm her family, Marilyn Nelson is quick to criticize perceived social ills. Some of her poetry takes on the appearance of criticism and denunciation and can even be interpreted to be bigoted. In many ways her poetry is of a right wing conservative nature as opposed to the liberal overtones that her contemporaries write with. It is always a pleasure to see someone who strays from the norm, however, her overall imagery and tone are not appropriate for effective social critique. Mrs. Nelson should continue to provide the audience with an attentive watch over her children, but she cannot be both the lobbyist and the mother.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

In The Fields of Praise, Marilyn Nelson brings her views to life in a series of well-constructed poems. Her poems cover a wide array of topics, to include racism, sexism, religion, motherhood, illicit sex, and poverty. The characters in her poems commit unimaginable crimes and achieve inconceivable feats. Indeed, Nelson's poems cover the entire human spectrum. Nelson writes in a deep, penetrating style. Skipping the nonsense that some writers embrace, she delves to the heart of the matter, analyzing and constantly questioning human motives. Indeed, Nelson is not afraid to confront the sickening evil that lurks within human nature and the events that unfold when the malevolence is unleashed. Her poems on pure, unadulterated evil reflect her fearless stance on describing, and in fact deploring the evil in human nature. Nelson offers an accurate, candid view of the events that unfold around her. On a lighter note, Nelson analyzes with extreme clarity the unconditional love a mother has for her child, and the unbridled purity of the natural world. Nelson celebrates the love and affection that is found within the souls of all human beings. Most of all, however, she analyzes the deep-rooted maternal instincts of mothers. In her poems, Nelson argues that the bond between a mother and her child is indestructible. In many of her works, Nelson describes the intense protectiveness of females toward their offspring. The Fields of Praise is an excellent collection of Nelson's poems that provides deep insight into the positive and negative aspects of human nature. Indeed, Nelson's knowledge and deep comprehension of human tendencies shines through in her works.