# Almost an Elegy: New and Later Selected Poems - Hardcover

by **Linda Pastan** (Author)

In poems of graceful lyricism and penetrating observation, award-winning poet Linda Pastan sheds new light on the complexities of ordinary life and the rising tide of mortality. Drawing from Pastan's five most recent volumes and including over thirty new poems, _Almost an Elegy_ reflects on beauty, old age, and the probability of loss.

With signature precision and quiet power, selections from _The Last Uncle_ (2002) and _Queen of a Rainy Country_ (2006) explore childhood, love, landscape, and the many pleasures of the imagination. Poems from _Insomnia_ (2015) and _Traveling Light_ (2011) chime with similar themes of aging, memory, and language. The new poems offer a profound portrait of a poet contemplating her life and the endurance of art, amidst the fleeting beauty of nature and the everyday losses that accompany old age. In "The Collected Poems," Pastan writes, "For years I wrestled / with syllables, with silence." Now, after a long and celebrated career, the poet rests "in a hammock of words, waiting / for the sun to rise again / over the horizon of the page."

Whether in a lush evocation of an impressionist painting or a wry and wistful ode to a car key, Pastan finds lucid meaning in the passage of time.

### Back Jacket

**Praise for Linda Pastan**  
  
"Restless and serene, spirited and subdued.... \[Pastan's\] poems look at the drama and depth of ordinary life."  
**\-- _Paris Review_**  
  
"Deceptively simple, casually precise, stylishly candid--these are the earmarks of a Pastan poem."  
**\-- _Washington Post_**  
  
"Pastan's natural strengths \[are\] lyrical lines, fluidity and grace.... \[O\]ne of our best \[poets\]."  
**\-- Grace Cavalieri, _Washington Independent Review of Books_**  
  
"Linda Pastan is one of America's truly fine poets working at the height of her powers."  
**\-- Michael Collier, _Baltimore Sun_**  
  
"\[Pastan\] is a poet of a hundred small delights, celebrations, responses, satisfactions, pleasures."  
**\-- _Hudson Review_**  
  
"\[Pastan\] has the talent to blend seriousness and playfulness in a variety of forms and rhythms.... \[S\]he has given her readers a healthy series of reflective and life-changing poems--poems to enrich us."  
**\-- _Missourian_**

**Number of Pages:** 144

**Dimensions:** 0.81 x 9.27 x 6.2 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** October 04, 2022

## Details

- **Price:** 30.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 30.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Almost an Elegy: New and Later Selected Poems - Hardcover

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