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Garnet Poems: An Anthology of Connecticut Poetry Since 1776
Author(s): Dennis Barone (Editor), Dick Allen (Contributor)
- Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
- Publication Date: 6 Sept. 2012
- Language: English
- Print length: 296 pages
- ISBN-10: 0819573094
- ISBN-13: 9780819573094
Book Description
Landmark collection illuminates the state through the work of its most prominent poets
Connecticut may be a small state, but it is large indeed in its contribution to the nation’s literature. Garnet Poems features forty-two poets whose work has a strong connection to Connecticut. The first major anthology of Connecticut poetry to appear since the mid-nineteenth century, it includes the work of such notable poets as Wallace Stevens, Lydia Sigourney, Mark Van Doren, Richard Wilbur,
Susan Howe, and Elizabeth Alexander. Distinguished writer-scholar Dennis Barone has supplemented the poems with an editor’s preface, notes that illuminate the poet’s (or poem’s) relation to the state, and informative biographies. The book also features a foreword by Dick Allen, the current Connecticut state poet laureate.
A Driftless Connecticut Series Book, funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“If states were poets, California would be big and craggy like Robinson Jeffers, but who would Connecticut be? A consensus of Nutmeg Staters might say Wallace Stevens, the stolid, conservative insurance executive by day who, in his spare hours, transmogrified into the Emperor of Ice Cream and helped usher modernism into American literature. But then, consider the evidence presented by editor Dennis Barone in Garnet Poems. From the get go, our little rectangular state was home to sonnet slingers.”–Alan Bisbort, The Hartford Advocate
“If states were poets, California would be big and craggy like Robinson Jeffers, but who would Connecticut be? A consensus of Nutmeg Staters might say Wallace Stevens, the stolid, conservative insurance executive by day who, in his spare hours, transmogrified into the Emperor of Ice Cream and helped usher modernism into American literature. But then, consider the evidence presented by editor Dennis Barone in Garnet Poems. From the get go, our little rectangular state was home to sonnet slingers.”–Alan Bisbort, The Hartford Advocate
“Connecticut emerges in the collection as a complicated place, it is ultimately reflected most in hillsides like those found in Litchfield County. Beyond its hills and history, Barone reflected on attributes that seemingly shaped Connecticut poets, including ‘the countryside, the educational institutions, intellectual curiosity and criticism of the past.'”–Brynn Mandel, Waterbury Republican-American
“It was Whitman who told us that America was a poem in our eyes. This remains true, and is no more obvious than in these memorable poems, each of them rooted in the landscape and people of Connecticut. It’s a sumptuous collection, full of surprises, and something all serious readers of poetry will enjoy.”–Jay Parini, author of Why Poetry Matters
“The power of poetry in Connecticut, as revealed in this collection, is great and will continue to be great. The poems in this book are a gift to all of us.””–Lee A. Jacobus, professor emeritus, University of Connecticut
“It was Whitman who told us that America was a poem in our eyes. This remains true, and is no more obvious than in these memorable poems, each of them rooted in the landscape and people of Connecticut. It’s a sumptuous collection, full of surprises, and something all serious readers of poetry will enjoy.”–Jay Parini, author of Why Poetry Matters
About the Author
DENNIS BARONE is a professor of English at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut, author of fourteen books, and editor of seven, including New Hungers for Old: One-Hundred Years of Italian-American Poetry. DICK ALLEN is a retired professor and director of creative writing at the University of Bridgeport.
