Ellen Bryant VoigtTwo TreesPoemsHuman character and human destiny—will and fate—pervade Ellen Voigt's work, giving her poems of relationship, her exploration of an individual past, rare depth and power. Now, in her fourth collection, a sustained meditation infuses the work, examining the myth of self, the human compulsion to remedy or augment fortune, and the limits of "what's given and what's made from luch and will." where will and fate collide is what chiefly preoccupies Voigt. Destiny, in these poems, is rarely generous, and the past is dangerously remote, incomplete, as in the title poem, where "the mind cried out / for that addictive tree it had tasted / and for that other, crown still visible over the wall." "Voigt reflects on music and on beauty, in the process creating a musical beauty. She writes with a classic authority . . . maturely, philosophically, and with passion and intelligence."—Booklist "A mix of song and sigh, wisdom and simplicity, reminiscent of the work of both Frost and Bishop. Voigt is fascinated by the dualities of childhood and adulthood, mortality and immortality, humanity's fall from grace and innocence and our constant struggle to impose a sense of order. . . . She guides us in a modest, detailed manner and exposes the humble patterns humans have womven in a chaotic world."—Publishers Weekly 
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1994 / paper / ISBN 0-393-31100-7 / 64 pages / 5-1/2" x 8-1/4" / Poetry | |||||
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