Library Catalog

Before Our Eyes : New and Selected Poems, 1975–2017 /

Wilner, Eleanor

Before Our Eyes : New and Selected Poems, 1975–2017 / Eleanor Wilner. - 1 online resource (232 p.) - Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets ; 142 .

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- NEW POEMS (2011–2017) -- FROM TOURIST IN HELL (2010) -- FROM THE GIRL WITH BEES IN HER HAIR (2004) -- FROM REVERSING THE SPELL, NEW AND SELECTED POEMS (1993–1996) -- FROM OTHERWISE (1993) -- FROM SARAH’S CHOICE (1989) -- FROM SHEKHINAH (1984) -- FROM MAYA (1979) -- NOTES

restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

A major new collection from the winner of the 2019 Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime achievement in poetryBefore Our Eyes gathers more than thirty new poems by Eleanor Wilner, along with representative selections from her seven previous books, to present a major overview of her distinguished body of work. A poet who engages with history in lyrical language, Wilner creates worlds that reflect on and illuminate the actual one, drawing on the power of communal myth and memory to transform them into agents of change.In these poems, well-known figures step out of old texts to alter their stories and new figures arise out of the local air—a girl with a fury of bees in her hair, homesick statues who step down from their pedestals, a bat cave whose altar bears a judgment on our worship of war, and a frog whose spring wakening invites our own. In the process, ancient myths are naturalized while nature is newly mythologized in the service of life.Before Our Eyes features widely anthologized works such as “Sarah’s Choice” and “Reading the Bible Backwards.” In the new poems, Wilner records the bewildering public shocks of the current moment, when civic life is under threat, when language itself is attacked, and when poetry’s lens of collective imagination becomes a way to resist falsity, to seek meaning, and to really see what is before our eyes.


Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.


In English.

9780691193328 9780691194127

10.1515/9780691194127 doi


American poetry.
POETRY / Women Authors.

Allegory of the Cave. Amputation. Ars Poetica (Horace). Bristlecone pine. Bubble wrap. Buddha's hand. Candelabra. Carpenter ant. Carpet. Centrifuge. Chisel. Compost. Cornea. Courtier. Crosswind. Cuckoo clock. David Lehman. Dinghy. Dream of Light. Drinking. Drought. Edward Hirsch. Elise Paschen. Eraser. Felling. Fig leaf. Firmament. Flypaper. Forehead. Fungus. Gauze. Gentleness. Golden shovel. Grate. Grazing. Griddle. Gwendolyn Brooks. Hatred. Hearth. Hermit crab. Hot air balloon. Humiliation. Husk. Illustration. In a basket. In medias res. Insect wing. Iridescence. Knossos. Laius. Lava field. Leather. Lighting. Limousine. Long hair. Manhole. Manure. Marble Arms. Meal. Mountain pass. Mountain stream. Ochre. Odor. Oil paint. On Assignment. Pasture. Patina. Patricia Smith (poet). Picture frame. Picturesque. Pity. Placard. Poetry. Prayer rug. Prediction. Pulse wave. Ruler. Running. Salmon run. Seaweed. Shawl. Skirt. Sleeve. Sock. Stamen. Stucco. Surface tension. T-shirt. Tabriz. The Best American Poetry. The Last Man. Tit (bird). Tomb. Trade route. Tree line. University of Arkansas Press. Victorian house. Weather. White rice. Winter.

PS3573.I45673

811/.54