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Natural History

Poems

Poems

By Dan Chiasson

By Dan Chiasson

By Dan Chiasson

By Dan Chiasson

Best Seller

Category: Poetry

Category: Poetry

Paperback $17.00

Sep 25, 2007 | ISBN 9780375711152

Ebook $12.99

Apr 02, 2009 | ISBN 9780307496997

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    Natural History by Dan Chiasson
    Paperback $17.00
    Sep 25, 2007 | ISBN 9780375711152

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    • Paperback $17.00

      Sep 25, 2007 | ISBN 9780375711152

      Also available from:

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    • Ebook

      Apr 02, 2009 | ISBN 9780307496997

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    About Natural History

    Dan Chiasson, hailed as “one of the most gifted poets of his generation” upon the appearance of his first book, takes inspiration for his stunning new collection from the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder. 

    “What happens next, you won’t believe,” Chiasson writes in “From the Life of Gorky,” and it is fair warning. This collection suggests that a person is like a world, full of mysteries and wonders–and equally in need of an encyclopedia, a compendium of everything known. The long title sequence offers entries such as “The Sun” (“There is one mind in all of us, one soul, / who parches the soil in some nations / but in others hides perpetually behind a veil”), “The Elephant” (“How to explain my heroic courtesy?”), “The Pigeon” (“Once startled, you shall feel hours of weird sadness / afterwards”), and “Randall Jarrell” (“If language hurts you, make the damage real”). The mysteriously emotional individual poems coalesce as a group to suggest that our natural world is populated not just by fascinating creatures–who, in any case, are metaphors for the human as Chiasson considers them– but also by literature, by the ghosts of past poetries, by our personal ghosts. Toward the end of the sequence, one poem asks simply, “Which Species on Earth Is Saddest?” a question this book seems poised to answer. But Chiasson is not finally defeated by the sorrows and disappointments that maturity brings. Combining a classic, often heartbreaking musical line with a playful, fresh attack on the standard materials of poetry, he makes even our sadness beguiling and beautiful.

    About Natural History

    Dan Chiasson, hailed as “one of the most gifted poets of his generation” upon the appearance of his first book, takes inspiration for his stunning new collection from the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder. 

    “What happens next, you won’t believe,” Chiasson writes in “From the Life of Gorky,” and it is fair warning. This collection suggests that a person is like a world, full of mysteries and wonders–and equally in need of an encyclopedia, a compendium of everything known. The long title sequence offers entries such as “The Sun” (“There is one mind in all of us, one soul, / who parches the soil in some nations / but in others hides perpetually behind a veil”), “The Elephant” (“How to explain my heroic courtesy?”), “The Pigeon” (“Once startled, you shall feel hours of weird sadness / afterwards”), and “Randall Jarrell” (“If language hurts you, make the damage real”). The mysteriously emotional individual poems coalesce as a group to suggest that our natural world is populated not just by fascinating creatures–who, in any case, are metaphors for the human as Chiasson considers them– but also by literature, by the ghosts of past poetries, by our personal ghosts. Toward the end of the sequence, one poem asks simply, “Which Species on Earth Is Saddest?” a question this book seems poised to answer. But Chiasson is not finally defeated by the sorrows and disappointments that maturity brings. Combining a classic, often heartbreaking musical line with a playful, fresh attack on the standard materials of poetry, he makes even our sadness beguiling and beautiful.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Also by Dan Chiasson

    The Math Campers
    Bicentennial
    Where's the Moon, There's the Moon
    See all books by Dan Chiasson

    Also by Dan Chiasson

    The Math Campers
    Bicentennial
    Where's the Moon, There's the Moon
    See all books by Dan Chiasson

    About Dan Chiasson

    DAN CHIASSON is the author of four previous collections of poetry, most recently Bicentennial, and a book of criticism, One Kind of Everything: Poem and Person in Contemporary America. He is the poetry critic for The New Yorker. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an… More about Dan Chiasson

    About Dan Chiasson

    DAN CHIASSON is the author of four previous collections of poetry, most recently Bicentennial, and a book of criticism, One Kind of Everything: Poem and Person in Contemporary America. He is the poetry critic for The New Yorker. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an… More about Dan Chiasson

    Product Details

    Category: Poetry

    Paperback | $17.00
    Published by Knopf
    Sep 25, 2007 | 88 Pages | 5-7/8 x 8-3/8 | ISBN 9780375711152

    Category: Poetry

    Ebook | $12.99
    Published by Knopf
    Apr 02, 2009 | 86 Pages | ISBN 9780307496997

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