Selected Poems (Klein, a. M. Collected Works of a.M. Klein.)

Rating:
Summary: A poet of conscience and community
Review: This is the from the introduction to the volume. " The essence of Klein's theme is community, more specifically, the relationship of the creative individual to the community in which he is rooted. As ' Portrait of the poet as Landscape' tells us, the poet who cannot ' unroll our culture from his scroll' is a crippled poet. All other ambitions are, in comparison 'mean'. For Klein, the poet's sense of self is essentially social; his primary relationship is not with God or with a beloved, or even with his art , but with a community.' The introduction includes a brief account of the various stages of poetic development in which he eventually moved toward a more colloquial poetic style. His engagement with Jewish themes is central to his work. He played an active part in Jewish communal life in Canada for a goodly number of years.


SPINOZA; ON MAN,ON THE RAINBOW

All flowers that in seven ways bright
Make gay the common earth,
All jewels that in their tunneled night
Enkindle and flash forth

All these,now in the sky up- thrust
To dazzle human sight
Do hang but on a speck of dust,
But dust suffused by light.