New and Selected Poems (Menashe)

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New and Selected Poems
AuthorSamuel Menashe
CountryUK
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry
PublisherBloodaxe Books
Publication date
2009
Media typePrint (paperback)
PagesXXXVI + 202 pp.
ISBN9781852248406
OCLC708333510

New and Selected Poems is a collection of poems by Samuel Menashe, first published in 2005 by the Library of America as part of the American Poets project, after the author received the Neglected Masters Award from the Poetry Foundation. A second (expanded) edition was published in 2008. The 2009 printing by Bloodaxe Books also features a DVD of the film Life is Immense: Visiting Samuel Menashe by Pamela Robertson-Pearce.

Contents[edit]

  • Giving the Day Its Due, by Samuel Menashe[1]
  • The Poets on Samuel Menashe (Donald Davie[2] [3] and Stephen Spender[4])
  • Introduction, by Christopher Ricks
  • The Poems

Critical reception[edit]

David Orr, writing in The New York Times, described Menashe as a "wry but essentially optimistic poet, and his best writing demonstrates that the stylistic limitations we choose quickly cease to be limitations, even when we identify them as such", singling out Menashe's poem "The Niche" for praise.[5] David Kaufmann, writing in The Forward, noted that "Menashe might well be the most recognized unrecognized American poet of the past 40 years" but suggested New and Selected Poems "could change all that".[6] Clive Wilmer, writing in The Guardian, concurred, writing "The literary world has not been kind to Menashe, as is often the case with poets who make no claims on it" and comparing Menashe to William Blake.[7]

References[edit]

  1. ^ First published in Metre, 7-8, 142 (2000). Download.
  2. ^ From Donald Davie; Barry Alpert (1977). The poet in the imaginary museum: essays of two decades. Carcanet New Press. ISBN 9780856351112. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
  3. ^ Foreword to Menashe's Collected Poems, 1986.
  4. ^ From "The Last Ditch", by Stephen Spender, The New York Review of Books, 22nd of July, 1971.
  5. ^ Orr, David (March 19, 2006). "A 'Neglected' Master". The New York Times. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  6. ^ Kaufmann, David (May 12, 2006). "A Bohemian Poet Seen in Rare Spotlight". The Forward. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  7. ^ Wilmer, Clive (June 27, 2009). "A pot poured out". The Guardian. Retrieved June 28, 2012.