To Urania: Poems
An autumnal mood pervades these verses from the exiled Soviet poet and Nobel laureate. "Life is the sum of trifling motions," observes Brodsky. In ironic, well-made lyrics he broods on being middle-aged and measures the abyss between ideals and reality. The pointlessness of existence is conveyed in his description of the Earth: "A sphere in space without markers/ spins and spins." Some poems are political; "The Berlin Wall Tune" wickedly lampoons the regimented mentality that holds up the Iron Curtain. Brodsky experiments with a variety of forms: "Twenty Sonnets to Mary Queen of Scots," "Lithuanian Nocturne," a carol, philosophical dialogues, vignettes of a damp, wintry Venice, a Baltic blizzard, a Polar expedition. New poems are intermixed with the poet's translations of his verses written during the past 14 years.Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.