The First Four Books of Poems

Rating:
Summary: Hard to read for the uninitiated
Review: This is very hard to get into unless you're familiar with Merwin's more contemporary works.

In this volume of his first four poetry books, he explores themes familiar to us all: love, animals, folk tales, themes in nature, rivers, and death.

His poems are almost all uniquely consistent with the same voice; there is none of the rising up and swelling of other poets, no rhythm to speak of, and one gets the hint that Merwin should've been writing without punctuation at all from the very beginning. He startles you on occassion with his unique insights (White Goat, White Rain) and his great sense of being there in the moment.

I think if you like his contemporary poems, then you should try to read this. They're kinda hard to get into. But otherwise a great showing from a great master.