Thursday, May 08, 2008

 

13 Poems by Weldon Kees


Some time ago (over a month, yeesh), I posted my silly little project plan to make short anthologies of my favorite poems by individual poets, starting with Weldon Kees. So today I actually completed the Kees anthology. Here are the titles, and links where available:

For My Daughter
Robinson
Aspects of Robinson
Robinson at Home
Relating to Robinson
The Speakers
Farrago
The Base
1926
The Upstairs Room
The Smiles of the Bathers
The Beach in August
The Beach

A lot of the anthology pieces, but certainly not all of them ("Round" is a poem whose idea is much better than its execution, and I really don't get the appeal of "The Bell from Europe"), and some much less collected poems like "Farrago" and "The Base," a truly bitter 12-liner that I can't find anywhere online.

First Kees poem I ever read: "The Beach"
Strangeness: "The Beach," all over the place online, isn't in the Collected Poems edited by Justice.
Favorite poems: "For My Daughter," "1926," and both "Beach" poems.
Poems I could most easily remove for others: a couple Robinson poems (though I think they're better as a whole group, so maybe not), "Farrago," and "The Smiles of the Bathers."
Phrase I'm likely to steal for my new project: "The present stumbles home to bed" from "The Speakers"

Who's up next for my little project? I was thinking Philip Levine or James Wright, but those are somewhat rote choices. Any other suggestions?

Comments:
Nikki Giovanni.
 
Riiiight
 
What a cool project! I love this as a way of familiarizing myself with a poet who I think I SHOULD know, but don't really.

Gwendolyn Brooks? Jack Gilbert? Louise Gluck? Anthony Hecht?
 
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