New and Selected Poems 1974-2004

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The New York Times has called Carl Dennis’s poetry “wise, original, and deeply moving.” A poet with a growing audience of admirers, Dennis writes in a clear, classically simple language that is both personal and universal. Making use of a rich variety of genres—advice, meditation, elegy, and prophecy—his poems take unexpected turns as they explore their subjects, catching the reader off balance in a way that is liberating. This new anthology gathers the best of his eight previous books along with a generous sampling of new poems.
© Mary Richert
Carl Dennis is the author of 13 previous works of poetry, as well as a collection of essays, Poetry as Persuasion. In 2000 he received the Ruth Lilly Prize for his contribution to American poetry. His 2001 collection Practical Gods won the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Buffalo, New York. View titles by Carl Dennis
Carl Dennis: New and Selected PoemsNew Poems
Gravestones
Heroic
Socrates and I
Manners
Verona
A Colleague Confesses
In Paris
Delphinium
In the Coffee Shop
Window Boxes
The Next Life
Our Death
From a Practical Reader
The Master of Metaphor
Sensible Summers
Manifesto
World History
The Actor
Dream Theory
Candles

from A House of My Own (1974)
Useful Advice
Students
Relatives
Knots

from Climbing Down (1976)
Ingratitude
The Homeowner
The Peaceable Kingdom
Praise for My Heart
Native Son

from Signs and Wonders (1979)
Listeners
Near Idaville
Carpentry
Snow
The Tree
Sunday
Grandmother and I
A Plea for More Time
The Band

from The Near World (1985)
Hector's Return
At the Corner
The Midlands
Beauty Exposed
Captain Cook
At Home with Cézanne
More Music
What Has Become of Them
Later
Charity
Time Heals All Wounds

from The Outskirts of Troy (1988)
Heinrich Schliemann
The Promised Land
Henry James and Hester Street
Visiting a Friend Near Sagamon Hill
Twenty Years
Little League
Fear of the Dark
On the Soul
At Becky's Piano Recital
The Circus
On the Way to School

from Meetings with Time (1992)
The Photograph
Defining Time
My Guardians
Tuesday at First Presbyterian
The Window in Spring
Haven
Adventure
The Bill of Rights
The Invalid
The Anthropic Cosmological Principle
Unfinished Symphony
Mildew
Night Walk
Infidel
My Moses
Delaware Park, 1990
Spring Letter
Invitation
No Shame

from Ranking the Wishes (1997)
Loss
Pendulum
Days of Heaven
To Reason
Cedar Point
The Great Day
Seven Days
Sarit Narai
Aunt Celia, 1961
All I've Wanted
Integer
Distinctions
Two or Three Wishes
Grace
Bivouac Near Trenton
Consolation
Writing at Night
As If
Starry Night
Still Life
Your City

from Practical Gods (2001)
A Priest of Hermes
Saint Francis and the Nun
Department Store
Not the Idle
Gelati
To a Pagan
History
School Days
Prophet
Pride
On the Bus to Utica
Jesus Freaks
The Serpent to Adam
View of Delft
A Chance for the Soul
Audience
A Letter from Mary in the Tyrol
Numbers
The Fallen
Eurydice
The Lace Maker
Progressive Health
More Art
Bashð
Improbable Story
Bishop Berkeley
Sunrise
Eternal Poetry
In the Short Term
Guardian Angel
May Jen
Eternal Life
The God Who Loves You

About

The New York Times has called Carl Dennis’s poetry “wise, original, and deeply moving.” A poet with a growing audience of admirers, Dennis writes in a clear, classically simple language that is both personal and universal. Making use of a rich variety of genres—advice, meditation, elegy, and prophecy—his poems take unexpected turns as they explore their subjects, catching the reader off balance in a way that is liberating. This new anthology gathers the best of his eight previous books along with a generous sampling of new poems.

Author

© Mary Richert
Carl Dennis is the author of 13 previous works of poetry, as well as a collection of essays, Poetry as Persuasion. In 2000 he received the Ruth Lilly Prize for his contribution to American poetry. His 2001 collection Practical Gods won the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Buffalo, New York. View titles by Carl Dennis

Table of Contents

Carl Dennis: New and Selected PoemsNew Poems
Gravestones
Heroic
Socrates and I
Manners
Verona
A Colleague Confesses
In Paris
Delphinium
In the Coffee Shop
Window Boxes
The Next Life
Our Death
From a Practical Reader
The Master of Metaphor
Sensible Summers
Manifesto
World History
The Actor
Dream Theory
Candles

from A House of My Own (1974)
Useful Advice
Students
Relatives
Knots

from Climbing Down (1976)
Ingratitude
The Homeowner
The Peaceable Kingdom
Praise for My Heart
Native Son

from Signs and Wonders (1979)
Listeners
Near Idaville
Carpentry
Snow
The Tree
Sunday
Grandmother and I
A Plea for More Time
The Band

from The Near World (1985)
Hector's Return
At the Corner
The Midlands
Beauty Exposed
Captain Cook
At Home with Cézanne
More Music
What Has Become of Them
Later
Charity
Time Heals All Wounds

from The Outskirts of Troy (1988)
Heinrich Schliemann
The Promised Land
Henry James and Hester Street
Visiting a Friend Near Sagamon Hill
Twenty Years
Little League
Fear of the Dark
On the Soul
At Becky's Piano Recital
The Circus
On the Way to School

from Meetings with Time (1992)
The Photograph
Defining Time
My Guardians
Tuesday at First Presbyterian
The Window in Spring
Haven
Adventure
The Bill of Rights
The Invalid
The Anthropic Cosmological Principle
Unfinished Symphony
Mildew
Night Walk
Infidel
My Moses
Delaware Park, 1990
Spring Letter
Invitation
No Shame

from Ranking the Wishes (1997)
Loss
Pendulum
Days of Heaven
To Reason
Cedar Point
The Great Day
Seven Days
Sarit Narai
Aunt Celia, 1961
All I've Wanted
Integer
Distinctions
Two or Three Wishes
Grace
Bivouac Near Trenton
Consolation
Writing at Night
As If
Starry Night
Still Life
Your City

from Practical Gods (2001)
A Priest of Hermes
Saint Francis and the Nun
Department Store
Not the Idle
Gelati
To a Pagan
History
School Days
Prophet
Pride
On the Bus to Utica
Jesus Freaks
The Serpent to Adam
View of Delft
A Chance for the Soul
Audience
A Letter from Mary in the Tyrol
Numbers
The Fallen
Eurydice
The Lace Maker
Progressive Health
More Art
Bashð
Improbable Story
Bishop Berkeley
Sunrise
Eternal Poetry
In the Short Term
Guardian Angel
May Jen
Eternal Life
The God Who Loves You