Odes To Opposites

Aritha van Herk explores other texts, other bodies, other moments arising from the otheredness of the writer in the uneasy position of critic.

“When I say this book is a love story, I mean it is about things that cannot be gotten over—like this world, and some of the people in it.” In 1819, the poet John Keats wrote six poems that would become known as the Great Odes. Some of them—“Ode to a Nightingale,” “To Autumn”—are among the most celebrated poems in the English language. Anahid Nersessian here collects and elucidates each of the odes and offers a meditative, personal essay in response to each, revealing why these poems still have so much to say to us, especially in a time of ongoing political crisis. Her Keats is an unflinching antagonist of modern life—of capitalism, of the British Empire, of the destruction of the planet—as well as a passionate idealist for whom every poem is a love poem. The book emerges from Nersessian’s lifelong attachment to Keats’s poetry; but more, it “is a love story: between me and Keats, and not just Keats.” Drawing on experiences from her own life, Nersessian celebrates Keats even as she grieves him and counts her own losses—and Nersessian, like Keats, has a passionate awareness of the reality of human suffering, but also a willingness to explore the possibility that the world, at least, could still be saved. Intimate and speculative, this brilliant mix of the poetic and the personal will find its home among the numerous fans of Keats’s enduring work.

This is a unique collection: combining a detached intimacy with a formal grandeur, Rollings addresses the opposition of stasis and action, depression and activity, sorrow and joy, and inquires into their power to shape both individual life and society as a whole.

What happens when poetry and philosophy connect? In 'Opposite,' award-winning poet Helen Mort and Professor of Philosophical Aesthetics Aaron Meskin set out to answer that very question. Whilst meeting at the Opposite café in Leeds, they came up with an intriguing idea for a creative dialogue: Aaron would introduce Helen to a range of philosophers who write about art and aesthetic matters, Helen would respond imaginatively to their ideas with original poetry, then the philosophers would write their own responses to Helen's poems. The result was an engrossing and multi-faceted series of conversations, which (like all the best coffee-shop discussions) took a variety of unexpected turns - topics included the art of tattooing, graffiti, Belle & Sebastian, food, rock climbing and whether there's such a thing as bad art.

Brilliant English translation of beloved poems by Pablo Neruda, who is the subject of the film Neruda starring Gael García Bernal and directed by Pablo Larraín A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, with French flaps First published in 1924, Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada remains among Pablo Neruda’s most popular work. Daringly metaphorical and sensuous, this collection juxtaposes youthful passion with the desolation of grief. Drawn from the poet’s most intimate and personal associations, the poems combine eroticism and the natural world with the influence of expressionism and the genius of a master poet. This edition features the newly corrected original Spanish text, with masterly English translations by award-winning poet W. S. Merwin on facing pages. • Includes twelve sketches by Pablo Picasso • New introduction by Cristina García For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

A bilingual collection of 25 newly translated odes by the century's greatest Spanish-language poet, each accompanied by a pair of exquisite pencil drawings. From bread and soap to a bed and a box of tea, the "odes to common things" collected here conjure up the essence of their subjects clearly and wondrously. 50 b&w illustrations.