The Names of Things: New & Selected Poems
The six new poems in this selection come fromIncomplete Knowledge(2006), which appeared in the U.S. slightly before this British import. The others generously representThe Singing Underneath(1988),Signs of Arrival(1996), andFeeding the Fire(2001), and the 36 pages of poems fromSignsare the purest gold here. Not all of it, though, for on the evidence of the whole book, Harrison has always been gifted at communicating the significance of his experiences and observations, both ordinary and special. In this he recalls Robert Frost, and like Frost's, his poems expand in meaning as they are read, reread, and closely considered. Like Frost, Harrison is a traveler, but whereas Frost in his poems roams close to home, Harrison jaunts far afield as well as around the neighborhood, speculatively as well as bodily (see "Brief History of an Atlas" and the two poems adverting to Arabian explorer Alexander Kinglake). His language is chaste and precise, he is formally modest, and he is as natural a poet as any writing in America today.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved