The Night Sky: Writings on the Poetics of Experience

by Ann Lauterbach

Book Overview

A scintillating collection of essays on language from one of literature's most supple minds

In The Night Sky, her first work of essays, acclaimed poet Ann Lauterbach writes of the ways in which art and poetry are integral and necessary to human conversation. At the center of the book is a series of seven essays, by turns meditative and polemical, that articulate the interstices between Lauterbach's poetics and her experience...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143037374
• ISBN13: 9780143037378
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 4.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Recommended read for those who enjoy Ann Lauterbach's poetry

For those new to Ann Lauterbach's poetry, I recommend reading The Night Sky, writings on the poetics of experience. Starting with the introduction, she asserts, "To write poetry in America is in itself a subversive act." Then reading through the essays on the personal, the poetic, the political - to the works of Emerson and the concept of common ground - she engages in an articulate and meaningful way the importance of poetry, pushing boundaries, and allowing no one to own the language. No topic escaped her notice in the bi-monthly column she wrote for American Poetry Review during 1996-1999. Her essay on the black dress amuses but informs beyond what one expects. Other essays are almost technical but very readable in their discussion of the use of language, fragment, form, reality and poetry. The insights she attains from people such as Sylvia Plath, Howard Hughes, Bob Dylan and later Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and Emerson, world events such as Abu Grab and 9/11 and her own chaotic life experience, are interwoven with her views on poetry and aesthetics. The Night Sky is a fascinating read and makes one want to be a poet.