Product Description
This generous selection of Mona Van Duyn’s distinguished, award-winning work spans four decades. Beginning with her classic Valentines to the Wide World (1959), encompassing the intimate voice of Bedtime Stories (1972) and the moving Letters from a Father (1982), crowned by the life-spanning Firefall (1993), Selected Poems reacquaints us with a poet whose ear is keenly tuned to the music of nature and human conversation. In lively and varied forms, from her minimalist sonnets to her magisterial longer pieces, Van Duyn captures a multiplicity of worlds within her world, in a tone inflected by both Midwestern pragmatism and a deep metaphysical intelligence. As she contemplates the act of reading in bed, a Rhenish sculpture in the Cloisters, or the loss of her mother, the poet goes beyond context to discover consciousness: an expression of the larger ideas and emotions—finally, the art—in the smallest details of our lives.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best of Mona Van Duyn
I picked this poetry collection to read for a class I am taking.At first I dreaded this because I dislike reading poetry, however I found myself hooked.It was very interesting to see how Mona's writing changed from her first collection in 1959 to the collection written in 1993.You can see the changes in society, from society's view of being very conservative to discussing the issues of abortion and homosexuality.
I live in Missouri, so I found it easy to relate to her discription of the environment and of her garden.
Her words are beautiful and I highly recommend you read this. ... Read more

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Mona Van Duyn's Near Changes is a valuable addition to contemporary American poetry. This work provides a variety of riches surpassing even that of her earlier work. For wit, inventiveness, true feeling and a sharp eye for the passing scene, there is no one better than she. ... Read more

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Mana Van Duyn's most recent collection is splendidly varied: witty, moving, sometimes astonishing. As Howard Nemerov said of her last book, "It is not only that the best of her poems teaches us so much about life, but that life, over a long time, teaches us the truth about these poems."

From the brief poems she calls "minimalist sonnets" to the powerful long poems "Falls" and "Delivery," both recalling incidents from childhood and youth, the work in this extraordinary book is that of a poet reaching the depths and heights of her own talent.

A companion to this one, If It Be Not I: Collected Poems 1959-1982, restores to print in one substantial book all of her work from Merciful Disguises and Letters from a Father. ... Read more

Product Description
These two books, published simultaneously, contain all the poetry of Mona Van Duyn, except for her Pulitzer Prize-winning Near Changes, available as a separate volume. Firefall contains the most recent work of the 1992-3 Poet Laureate of the United States.

"She can continually combine perspectives amusing and profound, tragic and joyful, awestruck and ironic, bright and dark. Few, if any, living poets give greater pleasure to readers. Indeed, far more than a short-term laureate, she has become a national literary treasure." Phoebe Pettingell, The New Leader

"Playful or rueful, witty or grave, Van Duyn's sonnets, elegies, and detailed descriptive poems entertain subjects as diverse as love, marriage, births, deaths, art, the creative process and the 'full splendor' of 'the flowering self'...Firefall, like the poet's earlier work, bespeaks a humane, forgiving spirit, rich in warmth and moral wisdom." Ben Howard, Poetry

"Mona Van Duyn has displayed throughout her long career more than enough authority and range, originality and technical mastery to qualify as a major poet. Happily Firefall triumphantly maintains and extends the consistently high level of her work...It's hard to exaggerate the richness of these books."

Rachel Hadas, The New York Times Book Review ... Read more

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Word count: 3332. ... Read more

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NOT A CD! THIS IS THE AUDIOTAPE CASSETTE OF MONA VAN DUYN READING SELECTIONS OF HER OWN POETRY! SELECTIONS ARE FROM: MERCIFUL DISGUISES; AND FROM: LETTERS FROM A FATHER AND OTHER POEMS. READINGS WERE AT: GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 12/13/86 (SELECTIONS 1-6, 8, 10-12), FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY (WASHINGTON D.C.) 1/20/75 (SELECTION 7), JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (BALTIMORE, MD.) 6/17/86 (SELECTION 9). 1986 WATERSHED TAPES SIGNATURE SERIES #C-210. WATERSHED INTERMEDIA/ THE WATERSHED FOUNDATION. DOLBY NR STEREO. APPROX. 57 MIN. PLAYING TIME.SIDE ONE: FOOTNOTES TO-THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BERTRAND RUSSELL (PART II), THE VISION TEST, LIVES OF THE POETS, THE CASE OF THE, IN BED WITH A BOOK, LETTERS FROM A FATHER.SIDE TWO: THE MISER, LATE LOVING, FIRST TRIP THROUGH THE AUTOMATIC CAR WASH, NEAR CHANGES, THE LEARNERS, THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN. ... Read more