Averno Poems

Averno is a small crater lake in southern Italy, regarded by the ancient Romans as the entrance to the underworld. That place gives its name to Louise Gluck's tenth collection: in a landscape turned irretrievably to winter, it is a gate or passageway that invites traffic between worlds while at the same time resisting their reconciliation.Avernois an extended lamentation, its long, restless poems no less spellbinding for being without conventional resoltution or consolation, no less ravishing for being savage, grief-stricken. WhatAvernoprovides is not a map to a point of arrival or departure, but a diagram of where we are, the harrowing, enduring present. Louise Gluckhas won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Bollingen Prize, and is the former Poet Laureate of the United States. She teaches at Yale University and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A National Book Award Finalist ANew York TimesNotable Book of the Year Winner of the Ambassador Book Award Averno is a small crater lake in southern Italy, regarded by the ancient Romans as the entrance to the underworld. That place gives its name to Louise Gluck's eleventh collection: in a landscape turned irretrievably to winter, it is the only source of heat and light, a gate or passageway that invites traffic between worlds while at the same time opposing their reconciliation.Avernois an extended lamentation, its long, restless poems no less spellbinding for being without plot or hope, no less ravishing for being savage, grief-stricken. WhatAvernoprovides is not a map to a point of arrival or departure, but a diagram of where we are, the harrowing, enduring presence, in which the ecstatic and the inevitable are irrevocably fused. "Avernomay be her masterpiece. Certainly it demonstrates that she is writing at the peak of her powers . . . The 18 poems inAverno,rich and resonant--with intricately linked imagery, overlapping themes, recurring characters--form a unified collection, but one in which each part never fails to speak for the whole."--Nicholas Christopher,The New York Times Book Review "Lago D'Averno (Avernus in Latin) is a volcanic crater lake, 10 miles west of Naples . . . The formal entrance of to the underworld was in a nearby cave . . . InThe Aeneid, Virgil catalogs some of the monsters (Gorgons, Harpies, the Chimera) and other fearsome figures gathered there: Grief, Disease, and Discord, all of whom, in various guises, makes appearances in Louise Gluck's brilliant new collection,Averno. Before and after Virgil, a long line of poets, epic and lyric, have chronicled perilous journeys to the underworld, traveling deeply to bring back its true booty--not Hades' gems, but the darkly glittered poems inspired by his queen, Persephone. Gluck has earned a place in that distinguished company of chthonic poets . . .Avernomay be her masterpiece. Certainly it demonstrates that she is writing at the peak of her powers . . . The 18 poems inAverno,rich and resonant--with intricately linked imagery, overlapping themes, recurring characters--form a unified collection, but one in which each part never fails to speak for the whole."--Nicholas Christopher,The New York Times Book Review "Few poets can shoulder the weight of myth the way Gluck does . . . The poems brilliantly display a poet's insight, a mother's warmth, and a mortal's empathy. There is wry humor, too, and, amid much that is dark, there are fragments of hope."--The N

Louise Glück has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Bollingen Prize, and is the former Poet Laureate of the United States. She teaches at Yale University and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.