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Overview
The celebrated American novelist and short story writer Edith Wharton, author of The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, and the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Age of Innocence, was also a dedicated, passionate poet. A lover of words, she read, studied, and composed poetry all of her life, publishing her first collection of poems at the age of sixteen. In her memoir, A Backward Glance, Wharton declared herself dazzled by poetry; she called it her “chiefest passion and greatest joy.”
The 134 selected poems in this volume include fifty published for the first time. Wharton’s poetry is arranged thematically, offering context as the poems explore new facets of her literary ability and character. These works illuminate a richer, sometimes darker side of Wharton. Her subjects range from the public and political—her first published poem was about a boy who hanged himself in jail—to intimate lyric poems expressing heartbreak, loss, and mortality. She wrote frequently about works of art and historical figures and places, and some of her most striking work explores the origins of creativity itself.
These selected poems showcase Wharton’s vivid imagination and her personal experience. Relatively overlooked until now, her poetry and its importance in her life provide an enlightening lens through which to view one of the finest writers of the twentieth century.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781501182839 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Scribner |
| Publication date: | 07/09/2019 |
| Pages: | 352 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
Dr. Irene Goldman-Price earned her PhD in English from Boston University and spent much of her career teaching English and Women's Studies at Ball State University in Indiana. She is the co-editor of American Literary Mentors and editor of My Dear Governess: The Letters of Edith Wharton to Anna Bahlmann, for which she earned fellowships from the Beinecke Library at Yale University and the Edith Wharton Society. She has served on the editorial board of the Edith Wharton Review; as a trustee at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s house museum in Lenox, Massachusetts; and is a frequent public speaker on various aspects of Wharton's life and work. She is married to fellow Wharton scholar Alan Price.
Date of Birth:
January 24, 1862Date of Death:
August 11, 1937Place of Birth:
New York, New YorkPlace of Death:
Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, FranceEducation:
Educated privately in New York and EuropeTable of Contents
Introduction xiii
Landscapes of the Imagination 1
Euryalus 3
Latomia dei Cappucini 4
Segesta 7
Beaulieu Wood 9
An Autumn Sunset 12
Moonrise over Tyringham 14
Battle Sleep 18
Les Salettes 19
Dieu d'Amour 22
La Folle du Logis 24
Life [Nay, lift me to thy lips] 28
A Public Voice 35
Only a Child 37
The Constellation's Last Victory 41
The Rose 43
A Torchbearer 46
High Pasture 49
The Bread of Angels 50
The Great Blue Tent 55
Belgium 58
The Tryst 59
Beaumetz, February 23rd. 1915. 61
"On Active Service" 63
Farewell to France 65
You and You 67
Elegy 71
With the Tide 73
Nature's Lure 77
Prophecies of Summer 79
Dactylics 81
Faun's Song 83
In the Forest 84
St. Martin's Summer 87
October in Newport 88
A November Day 90
Song [Come, for the leaf is alight] 91
The Northwind 92
The Southwind 93
Summer Afternoon (Bodiam Castle, Sussex) 96
Nightingales in Provence 99
Mistral in the Maquis 104
Courtship, Love, and Heartbreak 107
Some Woman to Some Man 109
A Woman I Know 110
Nothing More 111
Bettine to Goethe 112
A Failure 113
The Parting Day 115
Song [Let us be lovers to the end] 117
[A little while, My Sweet] 119
Happiness 120
Song [Mirth of life's blooming time] 121
Ame Close 122
Senlis. May 16th 124
[When I am gone, recall my hair] 126
Terminus 127
[She said to me: "Nay, take my body and eat"] 131
The Mortal Lease 132
Survival 137
A Meeting 138
[I have had your love] 139
Martyrdom 140
[O Love, let the world for once go by] 141
Two Days 142
Avowal 143
Had I Been Only 144
Arresting Characters 145
Vespers 147
Margaret of Cortona 149
Cynthia 156
Artemis to Actseon 161
Vesalius in Zante 165
The Last Giustiniani 174
Ogrin the Hermit 178
Phaedra 185
Lucrezia Buonvisi Remembers 186
Lucrezia Buonvisi's Lover 189
The Leper's Funeral and Death 199
The Oresteia 203
Esther 206
Penelope 212
The Art of Poetry 215
The Sonnet 217
The Sonnet's Boundaries 218
A Vision 219
[As birds from some green tropic gloom] 221
The Inferno 223
Dante 223
Cor Cordium 225
Swinburne 228
Lyrical Epigrams 229
Beauty 231
Raffaelle to the Fornarina 232
The Tomb of Ilaria Giunigi 235
A Picture by Sebastiani 236
Two Backgrounds 237
Chartres 240
The So-called Venus of Milo 242
A Princess of the House of Este 245
The "Beata Beatrix" of Rossetti 246
Mould and Vase 247
The "Apollo and Marsyas" of Perugino 249
Jade 250
Supernatural Thoughts 251
Gifts 253
The Dead Wife 254
The First Year [All Souls' Day] 255
All Souls 264
All Saints 267
A Grave 270
A Knock 272
The Masque of Life 274
Weltschmerz 276
Terza Rima 278
On Death and a Philosophy of Life 281
Easter 283
Heaven 285
"Maiden, Arise" 286
Opportunities 287
Wants 288
Patience 289
A Patient Soul 290
Renunciation 291
The One Grief 292
Grief 293
Sorrow's Sea- 295
The New Litany
[Not what we win but what we lose] 298
Non Dolet! 299
A Hunting-Song 301
The Eumenides 303
The Old Pole Star 304
Life [Life, like a marble block] 306
Life [How sweet, O Life] 307
Experience 308
Garden Valedictory 311
Death 312
The Great Companions 313
Finis 315
Lullaby for a Tired Heart 316
Treasure 317
Acknowledgments 319
Bibliography 323
Permissions 325
Art Permissions 327
Index of Titles 329