Description:
Ecco, 1992-01-01. Paperback. Very Good. 0.6496 8.9685 5.9882.
![Selected Poems and Translations: 1969-1991](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/938/669/9780395669938.IN.0.m.jpg)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Selected Poems and Translations: 1969-1991 Paperback - 1993
by William Matthews
"The road is what the car drinks/traveling on its tongue of light/all the way home." With lines like these William Matthews has created a body of work that stands alone in American poetry. Witty, sophisticated, yet lucid, his poems bring the reader refreshing insights into the everyday world of sports, music, wine, psychology, homes, pets, love, children, and literature. In the course of a brilliant career Matthews has also translated poems from French, Latin, and Bulgarian. In this first selection culled from his complete body of work, readers who have never sampled Matthews's poetry, or who cannot find it in print, will be able to take the measure of one of our most versatile and original poets. Matthews characteristically watches "the lights come on/in the valley, like bright type/being set in another language." Illuminating and thoughtful, his poems speak the truth in a way that prompted Peter Stitt, one of our most respected critics, to write that "William Matthews may be the wisest poet of his generation." In writing about W.H. Auden, Matthews could be describing himself: "The language has used him/ well and passed him through./We get what he has collected." This book, which includes some previously uncollected poems and translations, also draws on nine previous volumes: Ruining the New Road, Sleek for the Long Flight, Sticks & Stones, Rising and Falling, Selected Translations from Jean Follain, Flood, A Happy Childhood (that astonishing collection of poems with titles from Freud), Foreseeable Futures, and Blues If You Want, as well as translations from Martial and contemporary Bulgarian poets. "Our true subject is loneliness," he writes. "We've been divorced 1.5 times/per heart." "But think/with your body: not to be dead is to be/sexual, vivid, tender and harsh, a riot/of mixed feelings, and able to choose."
Summary
"The road is what the car drinks/traveling on its tongue of light/all the way home." With lines like these William Matthews has created a body of work that stands alone in American poetry. Witty, sophisticated, yet lucid, his poems bring the reader refreshing insights into the everyday world of sports, music, wine, psychology, homes, pets, love, children, and literature. In the course of a brilliant career Matthews has also translated poems from French, Latin, and Bulgarian. In this first selection culled from his complete body of work, readers who have never sampled Matthews's poetry, or who cannot find it in print, will be able to take the measure of one of our most versatile and original poets. Matthews characteristically watches "the lights come on/in the valley, like bright type/being set in another language." Illuminating and thoughtful, his poems speak the truth in a way that prompted Peter Stitt, one of our most respected critics, to write that "William Matthews may be the wisest poet of his generation." In writing about W.H. Auden, Matthews could be describing himself: "The language has used him/ well and passed him through./We get what he has collected." This book, which includes some previously uncollected poems and translations, also draws on nine previous volumes: Ruining the New Road, Sleek for the Long Flight, Sticks & Stones, Rising and Falling, Selected Translations from Jean Follain, Flood, A Happy Childhood (that astonishing collection of poems with titles from Freud), Foreseeable Futures, and Blues If You Want, as well as translations from Martial and contemporary Bulgarian poets. "Our true subject is loneliness," he writes. "We've been divorced 1.5 times/per heart." "But think/with your body: not to be dead is to be/sexual, vivid, tender and harsh, a riot/of mixed feelings, and able to choose."
First line
I wondered if the others felt as heroic and as safe: my unmangled family slept while I slid uncertain feet ahead behind my flashlight's beam.
From the rear cover
'An excellent book, which carries one away with its vigor and invention, both in such poems as 'Straight Life' and in it breezy, pungent versions of Martial.' -Richard Wilbur
Details
- Title Selected Poems and Translations: 1969-1991
- Author William Matthews
- Binding Paperback
- Edition 1st
- Pages 224
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Ecco Press, Boston, MA
- Date 1993-08-12
- Features Index
- ISBN 9780395669938 / 0395669936
- Weight 0.74 lbs (0.34 kg)
- Dimensions 8.97 x 5.99 x 0.65 in (22.78 x 15.21 x 1.65 cm)
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 91045716
- Dewey Decimal Code 811.54
Media reviews
More Copies for Sale
![Selected Poems And Translations: 1969-1991](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/938/669/9780395669938.IN.0.m.jpg)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Selected Poems And Translations: 1969-1991
by Matthews, William
- Used
- Very Good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780395669938 / 0395669936
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Simi Valley, California, United States
- Item Price
-
£2.39£3.19 shipping to USA
Show Details
Item Price
£2.39
£3.19
shipping to USA
![Selected Poems and Translations, 1969-1991](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/938/669/9780395669938.IN.0.m.jpg)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Selected Poems and Translations, 1969-1991
by Matthews, William
- Used
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Used - Very Good+
- Edition
- F First Paperback Edition
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780395669938 / 0395669936
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Vashon, Washington, United States
- Item Price
-
£3.68£3.13Save £0.55!£4.00 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
New York, NY, U.S.A.: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1993. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. F First Paperback Edition. S Trade Paperback. Very Good+.
Item Price
£3.68£3.13
Save £0.55
!
£4.00
shipping to USA
![SELECTED POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS 1969-1991](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/938/669/9780395669938.IN.0.m.jpg)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
SELECTED POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS 1969-1991
by Matthews, William
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- Used - Very Good with no dust jacket
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780395669938 / 0395669936
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Wilmore, Kentucky, United States
- Item Price
-
£4.00£3.60 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Boston, Ma, U. S. A.: Mariner Books. Very Good with no dust jacket. 1993. Paperback. 0395669936 . 0.65 x 8.97 x 5.99 Inches; 224 pages; Clean and unmarked. .
Item Price
£4.00
£3.60
shipping to USA
![Selected Poems And Translations: 1969-1991](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/938/669/9780395669938.IN.0.m.jpg)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Selected Poems And Translations: 1969-1991
by Matthews, William
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780395669938 / 0395669936
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Item Price
-
£4.80£3.19 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Ecco. Used - Very Good. May have light to moderate shelf wear and/or a remainder mark. Complete. Clean pages.
Item Price
£4.80
£3.19
shipping to USA
![Selected Poems and Translations 1969-1991](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/938/669/9780395669938.IN.0.m.jpg)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Selected Poems and Translations 1969-1991
by Matthews, William
- Used
- Very Good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780395669938 / 0395669936
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Iowa City SE, Iowa, United States
- Item Price
-
£4.80£3.20 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Mariner Books, 1993. Trade Paperback. Very Good.
Item Price
£4.80
£3.20
shipping to USA
![Selected Poems And Translations: 1969-1991](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/938/669/9780395669938.IN.0.m.jpg)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Selected Poems And Translations: 1969-1991
by Matthews, William
- Used
- Acceptable
- Paperback
- Condition
- Used - Acceptable
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780395669938 / 0395669936
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Houston, Texas, United States
- Item Price
-
£5.16FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Ecco, 1992-01-01. paperback. Acceptable. 6x0x9.
Item Price
£5.16
FREE shipping to USA
![Selected Poems and Translations 1969-1991](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/938/669/9780395669938.IN.0.m.jpg)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Selected Poems and Translations 1969-1991
by Matthews, William
- Used
- Very Good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780395669938 / 0395669936
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Iowa City SE, Iowa, United States
- Item Price
-
£5.60£3.20 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Mariner Books, 1993. Trade Paperback. Very Good.
Item Price
£5.60
£3.20
shipping to USA
![Selected Poems and Translations : 1969-1991](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/938/669/9780395669938.IN.0.m.jpg)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Selected Poems and Translations : 1969-1991
by Matthews, William
- Used
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Used
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780395669938 / 0395669936
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Stow, Ohio, United States
- Item Price
-
£7.61£4.40 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1992. Paperback. 1st edition, 1st printing. 200 pp. Fine condition (corners crisp, no creases, no markings to text; ink name on first page, short remainder stripe on bottom page edges at spine). A clean, fresh copy.
Item Price
£7.61
£4.40
shipping to USA
![SELECTED POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS 1969-1991](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/938/669/9780395669938.IN.0.m.jpg)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
SELECTED POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS 1969-1991
by Matthews, William
- Used
- Very Good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780395669938 / 0395669936
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Seneca, Pennsylvania, United States
- Item Price
-
£7.61£3.84 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1992. (1992), 200pp, light shelfwear to cover, contents clean & unmarked.. Trade Paperback. Very Good/No Jacket.
Item Price
£7.61
£3.84
shipping to USA
![Selected Poems and Translations, 1969-1991](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/938/669/9780395669938.IN.0.m.jpg)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Selected Poems and Translations, 1969-1991
by Matthews, William
- Used
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Used - Fine copy
- Edition
- 1st
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780395669938 / 0395669936
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Pittsford, New York, United States
- Item Price
-
£8.01£3.20 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Fine copy. 1992. 1st. softcover. 8vo, 200 pp. .
Item Price
£8.01
£3.20
shipping to USA