Preambles and other Poems

Feinman, Alvin

OXFORD UNIV PRESS (NY)

Corrupted into Song: The Complete Poems of Alvin Feinman

Review "These poems do have a strong center, which springs from the speaker's intelligence, his measured rhythms and use of rhyme, and his sometimes detached outlook as he examines the world around him. . . . Feinman's work deserves a broader audience."---Elizabeth Lund, Washington Post"A riveting collection by a poet who deserves to be better known."---Carol Rumens, The Guardian Product Description A definitive edition that introduces a major American poet to a new generation of readersAccording to Harold Bloom, "The best of Alvin Feinman's poetry is as good as anything by a twentieth-century American. His work achieves the greatness of the American sublime." Yet, in part because he published so sparsely, Feinman remained little-read and largely unknown when he died in 2008. This definitive edition of Feinman's complete work, which includes fifty-seven previously published poems and thirty-nine unpublished poems discovered among his manuscripts, introduces a new generation of readers to the lyrical intensity and philosophical ambition of this major American poet. Harold Bloom, a lifelong friend of Feinman, provides a preface in which he examines Feinman's work in the context of the strongest poets of his generation―John Ashbery, James Merrill, and A. R. Ammons―while the introduction by James Geary, who studied with Feinman at Bennington College, presents a biographical and critical sketch of this remarkable poet and teacher. Corrupted into Song restores Feinman's work to its rightful place alongside that of poets like Hart Crane and Wallace Stevens, with whom his poetry and poetics have so much in common. Review "Alvin Feinman's poems are perhaps the purest evidence of the extinction of personality T. S. Eliot believed was one of poetry's necessities. As an aspiration, extinction of personality is as dangerously thrilling as being exposed to a siren's song. As an achievement, Feinman's exquisite, visionary poems, tied to the mast of their own making, allow us to behold fierce, unyielding perceptions."―Michael Collier, director of the University of Maryland Creative Writing Program and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference"Poetry is making, poesis. And for a time, Alvin Feinman was a maker, a majestic poet who came to embrace his own intolerable limitations, his own dead-end. After long silence, one rejoices in these almost forgotten, rigorous, earthly, purgative poems."―Henri Cole From the Back Cover "Alvin Feinman's poems are perhaps the purest evidence of the extinction of personality T. S. Eliot believed was one of poetry's necessities. As an aspiration, extinction of personality is as dangerously thrilling as being exposed to a siren's song. As an achievement, Feinman's exquisite, visionary poems, tied to the mast of their own making, allow us to behold fierce, unyielding perceptions."--Michael Collier, director of the University of Maryland Creative Writing Program and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference"Poetry is making, poesis. And for a time, Alvin Feinman was a maker, a majestic poet who came to embrace his own intolerable limitations, his own dead-end. After long silence, one rejoices in these almost forgotten, rigorous, earthly, purgative poems."--Henri Cole About the Author Alvin Feinman (1929–2008) taught literature at Bennington College from 1969 to 1994. He was the author of Preambles and Other Poems and an expanded edition of that work, Poems (Princeton). He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at Brooklyn College, the University of Chicago, and Yale University. Feinman's wife, Deborah Dorfman (1934–2015), taught literature at Temple University, Wesleyan University, and SUNY Albany. Harold Bloom (1930–2019) was Sterling Professor of the Humanities and English at Yale University. James Geary is deputy curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University and the author, most recently, of I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Princeton University Press

A definitive edition that introduces a major American poet to a new generation of readers
According to Harold Bloom, "The best of Alvin Feinman's poetry is as good as anything by a twentieth-century American. His work achieves the greatness of the American sublime." Yet, in part because he published so sparsely, Feinman remained little-read and largely unknown when he died in 2008. This definitive edition of Feinman's complete work, which includes fifty-seven previously published poems and thirty-nine unpublished poems discovered among his manuscripts, introduces a new generation of readers to the lyrical intensity and philosophical ambition of this major American poet. Harold Bloom, a lifelong friend of Feinman, provides a preface in which he examines Feinman's work in the context of the strongest poets of his generation―John Ashbery, James Merrill, and A. R. Ammons―while the introduction by James Geary, who studied with Feinman at Bennington College, presents a biographical and critical sketch of this remarkable poet and teacher. Corrupted into Song restores Feinman's work to its rightful place alongside that of poets like Hart Crane and Wallace Stevens, with whom his poetry and poetics have so much in common.

Poems (Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets)

This volume of Alvin Feinman's poems presents a highly praised earlier work, Preambles and Other Poems, combined with more recent poems. Of Preambles Allen Tate wrote, "This is a remarkable first book. . . . There is an acute and subtle sensibility at work. 'Pilgrim Heights' is one of the best poems by an American that I have seen in many years.' "From "Pilgrim Heights"Something, something, the heart hereMisses, something it knows it needsUnable to bless--the wind passes;A swifter shadow sweeps the reeds,The heart a colder contrast brushes.So this fool, face-forward, bellyPressed among the rushes, plays outHis pulse to the dune's long slantDown from blue to bluer element,The bold encompassing drink of airAnd namelessness, a length compoundOf want and oneness the shore's mumblingDistantly tells--something a wing'sDry pivot stresses, carvedThrough barrens of stillness and glare.Originally published in 1990.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Poetry

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Books by Feinman, Alvin

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Feinman, Alvin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Preambles and other Poems

Corrupted into Song: The Complete Poems of Alvin Feinman

Corrupted into Song: The Complete Poems of Alvin Feinman

Poems (Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets)

Poems (Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets)