In the Salt Marsh by Nancy Willard
In this strong, appealing collection, Nancy Willard shares her passion for observing the mysteries of the natural world, particularly the flora and fauna of Cape Cod and the Hudson Valley, where many of these poems are set. We see, through her eyes, the coming of darkness to an empty orchard, the retreat of deer at dusk, and the breakup of a river with the onset of spring. Willard is also deeply engaged with the living creatures that populate her world. Her poems record her encounter with a moon snail and her celebration of the ladybugs she sends into the garden and the butterflies that alight on her shoulders like ghostly kisses. Amid poems about the intimate presence of nature are expressions of absences deeply felt. Willard is drawn not just to the inhabited world but also to the empty spaces with which our passage through life is strewn. In The Absence at the Swing, a rabbit watches a swing's back-and-forth motion just after the children have left the playground; in Niche Without Statue, she takes us to an alcove scoured / to stucco light and tells us, Somebody lived here. Stepped away. No tracks. We learn, too, of the presences she misses most deeply, as in Phone Poem, in which she imagines receiving a telephone call from her father after his death. Whether she is cultivating a sense of the life that is all around her or attending to the losses felt within, Nancy Willard never ceases to enchant us with the sense of dedication and awe that graces her verse. From the Hardcover edition.
Willard, Nancy: - Nancy Willard has loved William Blake's poetry from the day she first heard it. While writing the poems in this book, she built a six-foot model of the inn, decorating it with moons, suns, stars, and prints of Blake's paintings. The model with its residents--the characters that appear in this volume--stands in her living room.
Nancy Willard published her first book when a high school senior--an inset in the Horn Book, which was called A Child's Star. Formerly a lecturer in the English department at Vassar College, she is the author of a number of well-received children's books, including Sailing to Cythera: And Other Anatole Stories and The Island of the Grass King: The Further Adventures of Anatole, both winners of a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.
Nancy Willard published her first book when a high school senior--an inset in the Horn Book, which was called A Child's Star. Formerly a lecturer in the English department at Vassar College, she is the author of a number of well-received children's books, including Sailing to Cythera: And Other Anatole Stories and The Island of the Grass King: The Further Adventures of Anatole, both winners of a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781400042296 |
| ISBN 10 | 1400042291 |
| Title | In the Salt Marsh |
| Author | Nancy Willard |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Year published | 2004-07-13 |
| Number of pages | 52 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |