Amplitude: New and Selected Poems
by Tess Gallagher
Category: Poetry

Combining selections from three previous works with new poems, this volume reveals changes in the poet's style, tone, and perspective. In the early poems, clear and uncluttered speech is a deft anchor for a willingness to admit secrets from the invisible underside of events from her working class childhood. Gradually, the glint of absurdity or magic, the droll tunes of the plot, the pressure of concrete reality are overshadowed by concerns about the poet's role in social and political realities. The later poems include a new theme--political concerns and their relationship to the personal life--and a new tone revealing tenderness, acceptance, and celebration. ISBN 1-55597-099-0: $16.00.