Product Description
Described during his lifetime by Thom Gunn as 'one of the most accomplished poets alive, and one of the few of whom it can be said that he will still be worth reading in fifty years time' J. V. Cunningham was perhaps best known for his epigrams. Documenting his early style as an experimental modernist poet during the Depression and his remarkable ability as a translator The Poems of J. V. Cunningham also shows his later emergence as a master of the short, witty poems that made his name. Incorporating much of the material from his 1971 Collected Poems and Epigrams, The Poems of J. V. Cunningham was originally published in 1997 and also includes many of his later poems and translations, some of which appeared in periodicals but have never before been collected together in a book, and is a brilliant introduction to a forgotten poet who was described by the New York Times as 'one of the best poets in America'. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Poems as finely made as wristwatches
I was pleased to find the work of J.V. Cunningham. Over thirty-five
years ago I was introduced to his work by a professor who had been
a pupil of Yvor Winters. Winters had a very traditional view of poetry.
He hated William Carlos Williams verse for example.But he praised
Cunningham for poetry as good as anything Ben Jonson wrote. Guy
Davenport summed it up nicely when he described Cunningham's poems
for being "as finely made as a Swiss watch." Enjoy!

Anti-simpatico
J.V. Cunningham is an interesting poet, but not, to me, a loveable one.Does a poet have to be loveable?No, decidedly not.Certainly not in the sense of cuddly or adorable.What I guess I mean is "simpatico".Cunningham does everything he can to be anti-simpatico.From his earliest poems, he expresses a profound distrust of the "will", which I take to be disorderly impulse, unruly desire.What does he prefer?"... I praise / Far lamps at night, / Cold landmarks for reflection's gaze. / Distant they still remain, / Oh, unassailed, apart!"Apollo, in other words.Dionysius is just too too.As a result, his poems are often dense, extremely compacted, frequently, at least early in his career, obscure.Slowly, over time, he developed his specialty - the epigram, the ultimate in classical clarity and concision.But these are not the witticisms of Oscar Wilde or Walter Savage Landor (what names for the masters of the merciless bon mot, Wilde & Savage!).Here are three samples from Cunningham:

"The ladies in my life, serially sexed,
Unscrew one lover and screw in the next."[The title is "The Lights of Love."]

"Death in this music dwells, I cease to be
In this attentive, taut passivity."

"All hastens to its end.If life and love
Seem slow it is their ends we're ignorant of."

There are many interesting (that word again!) things in this collection.Some of these are:(1) Watching Cunningham evolve throughout the course of his first volume "The Helmsman."(2) The highly simpatico introduction and notes by poet Timothy Steele.(3)Translations of several authors, mostly ancient, whose spirit Cunningham certainly shares.Here's one example, from Martial:

"Sabinus, I don't like you.You know why?
Sabinus, I don't like you. That is why."

A Poet of the Clear Word
"Maples in the slant sun/The gay color of decay./Was it unforgiveable,/My darling, that you loved me?"The sequence "To What Strangers, What Welcome" by J.V. Cunningham is one of the finest sets of love poems in all of English literature.Spare, mature, formally remarkable, indescribably sad. This book is worth having for those 14 poems alone.

Serendipity
I too stumbled upon this collection by accident.A fan of the typical, high-school-recommended-poets, this collection struck me with inspiration.The poems have great meaning with their simplicity and powerfulness.It'sone to buy copies for friends and families because once you start reading,you'll want to share.

Amazingly bittersweet
I discovered J.V. Cunningham quite by accident.I cannot thank the powers that be enough for this'accident.' Cunningham is the most forward, bold poet of his time. A true classic, no library should be without his work. ... Read more