Cart
Free US shipping over $10
Proud to be B-Corp

Acquainted with the Night Lisa Russ Spaar

Acquainted with the Night By Lisa Russ Spaar

Acquainted with the Night by Lisa Russ Spaar


$10.00
Condition - Like New
Only 1 left

Summary

A sumptuously packaged and eye-catching compendium of reflections by the great poets of the world-from ancient to contemporary times-on a subject almost everyone knows all too well: insomnia.

Acquainted with the Night Summary

Acquainted with the Night: Insomnia Poems by Lisa Russ Spaar

It is the rare individual who has not, at one time or another, been kept awake for hours on end-as the rest of the world, maddeningly, appears to be comfortably lost in the nocturnal world of dreams. Here is a treasury of verse on the rich subject of insomnia-meditations by poets who have sought to describe their own moments of solitude in darkness, when the world's regular bustle of activity and distraction falls away and they are left to contemplate in silence. Acquainted with the Night brings together Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Bishop, Rimbaud and Sappho, Shakespeare and Shelley-the great poets of the Western literary heritage-on a theme with which each one has been acutely familiar. Lisa Russ Spaar has also unearthed ruminations on the sleepless nights of poets the world over: in a fascinatingly diverse anthology, she has harvested verse from Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Inuit, Vietnamese, Tamil, Yiddish, and Romanian poets, who together present an illuminating display of insomnia's extraordinary and enduring legacy in widely different cultures through the centuries. As these exquisite poems chart a course from solitude, through anxiety, to epiphany, the reader truly learns what it means to be acquainted with the night.

Acquainted with the Night Reviews

This dark-hued but often beautiful anthology offers poems from many cultures. -- Herbert Kupferberg Boston Globe One of the greatest pleasures for me as a poetry lover is to discover a remarkable new anthology full of unfamiliar gems and forgotten classics. Lisa Russ Spaar's Acquainted with the Night is exactly this sort of book-vital, engrossing, and enlarging. Spaar's treatment of her single subject is astonishingly diverse, ranging from ancient Greek to modern Japanese. She mixes compelling poems from Russia, Italy, India, China, Sweden, France, and elsewhere with a striking selection from the English-speaking world. As she explores her dark subject, insomnia becomes a focal point for the human condition. -- Dana Gioia

About Lisa Russ Spaar

Lisa Russ Spaar is a lecturer in creative writing and the administrator of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing in the English Department at the University of Virginia. Collections of Spaar's own poetry include Blind Boy on Skates and Glass Town.

Table of Contents

One: Solitude and Vigil Insomnia, by Elizabeth Bishop Insomnia, by Joyce Carol Oates Lines Written at Night During Insomnia, by Alexander Pushkin Insomnia, by Dana Gioia Insomnia, by Cornelius Eady Mirrors at 4 A.M., by Charles Simic What She Said, by Patumanr The Moon, by Gunnar Ekel from The Sleepers, by Walt Whitman Acquainted with the Night, by Robert Frost from The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, by William Shakespeare Insomnia. Homer. Taut sails, by Osip Mandelstam Insomnia Song, by Gregory Orr The Bench of Boors, by Herman Melville Sleep's Underside, by Melissa Kirsch Insomnia, by Debra Nystrom On Reading The Book of Odes, by Cao B Qu t The Insomnia of Tremayne, by Donald Justice Insomnia, by alvatore Quasimodo Halcion, by R. T. Smith Insomniac, by Sylvia Plath Moonless Night, by Louise Glock Insomnia at the Solstice, by Jane Kenyon When Night is almost done [347], by Emily Dickinson If This Room Is Our World, by Weldon Kees Midnight Saving Time, by Adrien Stoutenburg July Dawn, by Louise Bogan Psalm: The New Day, by Mark Jarman Two: Anguish and Longing One Night, by Umberto Saba I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day, by Gerard Manley Hopkins When Loneliness Is a Man, by Yusef Komunyakaa from Night of Hell, by Arthur Rimbaud Job 7:2--8; 12--15; 20--21, by King James Bible Lament at Night, by H. Leivick Night in a Room by the River, by Tu Fu Ballad of One Doomed to Die, by Federico Garcia Lorca The Broken Dark, by Robert Hayden from Macbeth, by William Shakespeare Apology to Andrew, by Richard Jones The Cross of Snow, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Exile, by Ellen Bryant Voigt Tonight I've watched, by Sappho Aubade, by Philip Larkin Adolescence--II, by Rita Dove Dark One,/how can I sleep?, by Mirabai Bright Venus, who across the heavens stray, by Louise Lab The Pains of Sleep, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge For whatever animals dwell on earth, by Petrarch Come sleep, Oh sleep, the certain knot of peace, by Sir Philip Sidney Is it thy will thy image should keep open, by William Shakespeare The Night Alone, by Meleagros Bread and Wine, by Nina Cassian She Speaks to Her Husband, Asleep, by Robert Schultz Nevertheless the moon, by Muriel Rukeyser Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, by William Shakespeare How can I then return in happy plight, by William Shakespeare The Late Hour, by Mark Strand Three: Epiphany and Vision The Appalachian Book of the Dead III, by Charles Wright To the monk at Thanh-phong Monastery, by King Tron Th i-tng from Winter, by Ryokan Utitia'q's Song [Inuit] At the end of a crazy-moon night, by Lalla Relentlessly Lovelorn, the Non-Sleeper Whispers and Re-Whispers a Magic Charm Against His Wound's Roar, by Stephen Margulies Make the Bed, by Stephen Cushman Insomnia, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti White Night, by Mary Oliver Stars, by Emily Bronta Bright Star, by John Keats Owl, by Robert Mezey Insomnia on a Summer Night, by Umberto Saba Insomnia, by Tristan Corbiare A Clear Midnight, by Walt Whitman His Lamp Near Daybreak, by Yannis Ritsos Night-Time: Starting to Write, by Bernard Spencer Gift of the Poem, by Stephane Mallarm Anecdote of the Prince of Peacocks, by Wallace Stevens hototogisu/hototogisu tote/akeni keri, by Kaga no Chiyo Astronomies and slangs to find you, dear, by John Berryman from Insomnia, by Marina Tsvetaeva My night awake (from The Speed of Darkness), by Muriel Rukeyser The Night Person, by Richard Frost

Additional information

GOR008602270
9780231115445
023111544X
Acquainted with the Night: Insomnia Poems by Lisa Russ Spaar
Used - Like New
Hardback
Columbia University Press
19991020
208
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
The book has been read, but looks new. The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket is included if applicable. No missing or damaged pages, no tears, possible very minimal creasing, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins

Customer Reviews - Acquainted with the Night