Gods and Mortals: Modern Poems on Classical Myths
For centuries, poets have looked into the mirror of classical myth to show us the many ways our emotional lives are still reflected in the ancient stories of heroism, hubris, transformation, and loss that myths so eloquently tell. Now, in Gods and Mortals: Modern Poems on Classical Myths, we have the first anthology to gather the great 20th century myth-inspired poems from around the world.
"Perhaps it is because the myths echo the structure of our unconscious that every new generation of poets finds them a source of inspiration and self-recognition," says Nina Kossman in her introduction to this marvelous collection. Indeed, from Valery, Yeats, Lawrence, Rilke, Akhmatova, and Auden writing in the first half of the century to such contemporary poets as Lucille Clifton, Derek Walcott, Rita Dove, Wislawa Szymborska, and Mark Strand, the material of Greek myth has elicited a poetry of remarkably high achievement. And by organizing the poems first into broad categories such as "Heroes," "Lovers," "Trespassers," and secondly around particular mythological figures such as Persephone, Orpheus, or Narcissus, readers are treated to a fascinating spectrum of poems on the same subject. For example, the section on Odysseus includes poems by Cavafy, W. S. Merwin, Gregory Corso, Gabriel Zaid, Louise Gluck, Wallace Stevens, and many others. Thus we are allowed to see the familiar Greek hero refracted through the eyes, and sharply varying stylistic approaches, of a wide range of poets from around the world.
Here, then, is a collection of extraordinary poems that testifies to — and amply rewards — our ongoing fascination with classical myth.
- Author
- Nina Kossman, Vernon Watkins, Jerzy Ficowski, Valentine Penrose, Peter Huchel, Daryl Hine, Kathleen Raine, Yvor Winters, John Fuller, Ann Deagon, Margaret Kaufman, Olga Broumas, Samn Stockwell, Geoffrey Hill, Claribel Alegría, James Laughlin, Thomas Kinsella, Delmore Schwartz, Larissa Szporluk, Laurie Sheck, Mona Van Duyn, Ramon Guthrie, Max Jacob, Maura Stanton, Peter Russell, Alfred Gong, Ronald Bottrall, Sándor Weöres, Johannes Bobrowski, A.D. Hope, Emery George, Louis MacNeice, Stephen Mitchell, H.D., Jorie Graham, William Bronk, Thomas Merton, Gregory Orr, Louis Simpson, Edwin Muir, Ingeborg Bachmann, Georg Trakl, Jack Gilbert, Donald Justice, Muriel Rukeyser, Robert Kelly, John Hollander, Allen Grossman, Kate Daniels, May Sarton, Ion Barbu
- Format
- hardcover
- Pages
- 320
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press, USA
- Language
- english
- ISBN
- 9780195133417
- Genres
- poetry, mythology, anthologies, fiction, retellings
- Release date
- 2001
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