Selected Poems

Selected Poems

by Rita Dove
Selected Poems

Selected Poems

by Rita Dove

Paperback

$15.00 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Temporarily Out of Stock Online
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

Here in one volume is a selection of the extraordinary poems of Rita Dove, who, as the nation's Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995, brought poetry into the lives of millions of people.  Along with a new introduction and poem, Selected Poems comprises Dove's collections The Yellow House on the Corner, which includes a group of poems devoted to the themes of slavery and freedom; Museum, intimate ruminations on home and the world; and finally, Thomas and Beulah, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1987, a verse cycle loosely based on her grandparents' lives.  Precisely yet intensely felt, resonant with the voices of ordinary people, Rita Dove's Selected Poems is marked by lyric intensity and compassionate storytelling.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780679750802
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date: 09/28/1993
Pages: 240
Product dimensions: 5.23(w) x 7.98(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

Riat Dove, Poet Laureate of the United States from 1993 to 1995, was born and raised in Akron, Ohio.  She has published the novel Through the Ivory Gate, a collection of stories, a verse drama, a book of essays and five books of poetry, among them Thomas and Beulah, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1987.  The recipient of numerous literary fellowships and awards, she is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia and lives near Charlottesville with her husband, Fred Viebahn, and their daughter, Aviva.

Read an Excerpt

The Secret Garden

I was ill, lying on my bed of old papers,
when you came with white rabbits in your arms;
and the doves scattered upwards, flying to mothers,
and the snails sighed under their baggage of stone . . .

Now your tongue grows like celery between us;
Because of our love-cries, cabbage darkens in its nest;
the cauliflower thinks of her pale, plump children and turns greenish-white in a light like the ocean's.

I was sick, fainting in the smell of teabags,
when you came with tomatoes, a good poetry.
I am being wooed.  I am being conquered by a cliff of limestone that leaves chalk on my breasts.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews