Inventions of Farewell: A Collection of Elegies

Bys: Gilbert, Sandra M., Dickinson, Emily, Millay, Edna St. Vincent, et al.

Book Overview

Inventions of Farewell collects English language poems of mourning from the late Middle Ages to the present. Aesthetic assumptions and poetic styles have altered over the centuries, yet the great and often terrifying themes of time, change, age, and death are timeless. The poems here--from Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens, and Edna St. Vincent Millay to Sharon Olds, Stanley Kunitz, and W. S. Merwin--trace the trajectory of grief, but they also illustrate how the deepest sorrow has produced countless poignant and resonant works of art--words that can aid us as we struggle with our own farewells.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393049728
• ISBN13: 9780393049725
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Companions on the Journey

The book is divided into two major sections: I. Watching: Visions of the Dying and the Dead. This has 4 sub-sections...and II. Grieving: Lamentations for the Dead with 10 sub-sections. I read this book after reading "Death's Door: Modern Dying and the Ways We Grieve." This book is a splendid achievement and a fine companion for the "Inventions of Farewell: A Book of Elegies." I believe the elegies collection gave birth to "Death's Door." In addition to the carefully selected poems from several centuries of both American and English poets, the reader is treated to a fine introduction to the collection as a whole and each sub-section which clarifies the topics at hand. Gilbert seeks to clarify the questions of "What ceremonies else do we have, nowadays, for those who are bereaved? What more must be--can be--done to assuage grief?" When the range of grieving, articulate voices is laid before us, we find we have many companions on this, the most human of journeys. Sandra M. Gilbert's "Inventions of Farewell: A Book of Elegies" gave me a context to place my work within. "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary" fits into a tradition I was not consciously aware of as I wrote. I felt I had come home into a larger family with many voices. Janet Grace Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary