The Selected Poems

by A.R. Ammons

Book Overview

To the visions of clarity and terror in that volume the poet now adds the most important poems from his three books published since. The resulting collection is the essential starting place for new readers, the quarry for those familiar with his work. Among the new poems is Easter Morning, which the critic Helen Vendler called a classic poem . . . a revelation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393303969
• ISBN13: 9780393303964
• Release Date: March 1987
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Love Song

I bought it for one poem: "Love Song". It is the best poem about love and lust that I have ever read.

Precise observation of nature

Published in 1987, this book contains page-length poems selected by the author. You don't read these poems to get a story line, but rather a feeling of place. With Ammons its the precise observation of nature "Bees stopped on the rock", or a "Snow log". There are also mirrors of the self, "of a life that did become" in the poem Easter morning. In some ways, he is a modern Transcendentalist, looking at nature, observing carefully, and looking even deeper. I recommend this book to anyone, and its a good introduction to Ammons.