The Field of Praise: New and Selected Poems

Rating:
Summary: A Mother's Insight
Review: In The Fields of Praise, Marilyn Nelson brings her views to life in a series of well-constructed poems. Her poems cover a wide array of topics, to include racism, sexism, religion, motherhood, illicit sex, and poverty. The characters in her poems commit unimaginable crimes and achieve inconceivable feats. Indeed, Nelson's poems cover the entire human spectrum. Nelson writes in a deep, penetrating style. Skipping the nonsense that some writers embrace, she delves to the heart of the matter, analyzing and constantly questioning human motives. Indeed, Nelson is not afraid to confront the sickening evil that lurks within human nature and the events that unfold when the malevolence is unleashed. Her poems on pure, unadulterated evil reflect her fearless stance on describing, and in fact deploring the evil in human nature. Nelson offers an accurate, candid view of the events that unfold around her. On a lighter note, Nelson analyzes with extreme clarity the unconditional love a mother has for her child, and the unbridled purity of the natural world. Nelson celebrates the love and affection that is found within the souls of all human beings. Most of all, however, she analyzes the deep-rooted maternal instincts of mothers. In her poems, Nelson argues that the bond between a mother and her child is indestructible. In many of her works, Nelson describes the intense protectiveness of females toward their offspring. The Fields of Praise is an excellent collection of Nelson's poems that provides deep insight into the positive and negative aspects of human nature. Indeed, Nelson's knowledge and deep comprehension of human tendencies shines through in her works.

Rating:
Summary: Love That Sex
Review: Marilyn Nelson's book The Fields of Praise is an excellent collection of poetry that captures the deep-down curiosity of the reader. Most of her poems have a parental tone and reflect on her life experiences with her mother and with herself as a mother. Also, several selections deal with the deep down nature of humans and the reason for our actions, such as in "Propositions," where she asks the difficult question of where our sexual desires come from. As a religious person, one of my favorites is "Thus Far by Faith." It is about the faith that the oppressed African Americans had while they were held captive by slavery. It actually reached out to me and made me examine some parts of my life and realize that I was worried about nothing. One poem, "Rilke's Third Elegy" still baffles me. I had the privilege of listening to her recite some of her poems, and someone asked her to read this poem, which someone else wrote, but she included it in her book. When someone asked her about the meaning, she said "Well I think it is about masturbation," but I think she was joking. Marilyn Nelson does a good job of capturing the readers imagination and discusses life and decision making in depth. I enjoyed her book and would suggest it to any poetry lover.

Rating:
Summary: Not a lot of "Praise"
Review: Marilyn Nelson's poetry is up front and to the point. Her religious allusions inspire thought provocation, but the audience is unsatisfied when exploring deep analysis. Her didactic language compliments her occupation as a teacher, but she should separate the classroom from publications. Overall, Nelson is one of the better contemporary poets. She is very coherent and matter of fact. The elements of coherency and consistency contrast Nelson with her abstract contemporaries. However, Nelson comes up short in my view. A reader with a solid foundation in Christianity will find more satisfaction in Nelson's "The Fields of Praise" than I. However, my secularist views are not so naive that my outlooks disable me to distinguish meaning in her poetry. My outlook on life, religion and education are very different than Nelson's. I enjoyed reading Nelson's work as a devil's advocate, but ultimately, I was left with the impression of a void that still yearned for substance.

Rating:
Summary: A Mother's Insight
Review: Marilyn Neslon's The Fields of Praise is a book about motherhood. She is a refreshing turn from the sexually explicit yet uninterpretable poetry that pervades modern day poetry. The compassionate and romantic pieces in her book are generally directed towards children. Though her poems often express fear and concern, they are not exploding with the dark, depressing diction of utter despair that pervades current poetry. She brings the reader into the real world of a loving heart without beating the reader over the head with fraudulent fervor or suffocating the reader with meloncholy. As a mother hunts down and abolishes anything she feels will harm her family, Marilyn Nelson is quick to criticize perceived social ills. Some of her poetry takes on the appearance of criticism and denunciation and can even be interpreted to be bigoted. In many ways her poetry is of a right wing conservative nature as opposed to the liberal overtones that her contemporaries write with. It is always a pleasure to see someone who strays from the norm, however, her overall imagery and tone are not appropriate for effective social critique. Mrs. Nelson should continue to provide the audience with an attentive watch over her children, but she cannot be both the lobbyist and the mother.

Rating:
Summary: good collection
Review: nelson's collection as a whole is pretty good, though it does drop off a bit in the hermitage section. her poems are poems of home and family and spirituality. it's a good selection of her work.

Rating:
Summary: Selected Praise
Review: The Fields of Praise, a compilation of related poems by Marilyn Nelson, had both very good pieces as well as some mediocre poems. I appreciated Ms. Nelson's attempt to categorize her poems into a few broad categories however I thought the poems in her third section "Hermitage" became redundant with the last stanzas acting almost like punchlines. However like mentioned earlier, their are a few gems that make this collection worth having. My personal favorite piece is the very last one of the book, "A Minor Miracle". I thought the realism (also knowing that it is a true story helps) encapsulated in this piece was amazing. While I have not read every poem in this collection, there are some that I dislike and others that I like. Overall, discovery of an enjoyable poem, like "A Minor Miracle", makes the time spent hunting worthwhile.