The World of the Ten Thousand Things Poems 1980-1990

This important book--shot through with reflections on, explorations of, and hymns to both our natural and spiritual realms--features the three poetry collections Charles Wright published during the 1980s:The Southern Cross(1981),The Other Side of the River(1984), andZone Journals(1988). Charles Wrighthas won, among other honors, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, and the Academy of American Poets' 1996 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. He teaches at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. This artful yet earthy book fully reveals the keen, candid, and reflective thinking and writing that have made Charles Wright one of America's most belovedand honoredcontemporary poets. ThroughoutThe World of the Ten Thousand Thingswe find his typically insightful and journal-like reflections on, explorations of, and hymns to both our natural and spiritual realms. Collecting poems from Wright'sThe Southern Cross(1981),The Other Side of the River(1984),Zone Journals(1988), andXionia(1990), this book is itself "a single poetic sequence," as Richard Tillinghast has noted, "worthy of comparison with such extended works asThe Bridgeby Hart Crane,The Far Fieldby Theodore Roethke, andDream Songsby John Berryman." "Since the early 1980s, Wright has increasingly abandoned short lyrics for journal poems that weave diverse thematic threads into a single autobiographical fabric . . . [He] is at liberty to spin out extended meditations that pick up, work with, lay aside, and return again to landscapes, historical events, and ideas . . . Wright's gift for verbal music, his ability to evoke sensory experience and a boldness of metaphorical reference, get the juices flowing . . . [He is] a poet of great purity and originality."Richard Tillinghast,The New York Times Book Review "There is no poet of his generation whose career has unfolded with such genuine authority as Charles Wright's, or whom I read with more astonishment and gratitude. There is no book published this year [1990] I could recommend more highly."J.D. McClatchy,Poetry

Charles Wright, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, and the Griffin Poetry Prize, teaches at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

"Since the early 1980s, Wright has increasingly abandoned short lyrics for journal poems that weave diverse thematic threads into a single autobiographical fabric. . . . [He] is at liberty to spin out extended meditations that pick up, work with, lay aside, and return again to landscapes, historical events, and ideas. . . . Wright's gift for verbal music, his ability to evoke sensory experience and a boldness of metaphorical reference get the juices flowing. . . . [The World of the Ten Thousand Things is] a single poetic sequence worthy of comparison with such extended works as "The Bridge" by Hart Crane, "The Far Field" by Theodore Roethke, and "Dream Songs" by John Berryman. . . . [Wright is] a poet of great purity and originality."--Richard Tillinghast, The New York Times Book Review

"There is no poet of his generation whose career has unfolded with such genuine authority as Charles Wright's, or whom I read with more astonishment and gratitude. There is no book published this year I could recommend more highly."--J.D. McClatchy, Poetry