The Jungle Poems of Leconte de Lisle
Description
David R. Slavitt, award-winning author of more than 100 books of poetry and prose, translates the work of Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle, a French poet associated with the Parnassian movement. "To look at Leconte de Lisle now," writes Slavitt in the book's introduction, "is to discover a sensibility strikingly similar to that of Elizabeth Bishop (with Africa instead of Brazil as his mise en scène). In some ways, he reminds me, too, of Wallace Stevens, stuck up in the fog of Hartford and longing for the glare of the tropics ('Home from Guatemala, back at the Waldorf'). He was an accomplished classicist who translated Homer's Iliad and the 'Eumenides' of Aschylus. But it is as a poet that he fascinates me, and particularly as one whose technical abilities are impressive and whose subjects were often deliberately exotic and primitif."
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About the Author
Reviews
PRAISE FOR DAVID R. SLAVITT
"Slavitt's touch is light, and he writes beautifully.... His satire is sharp, and he can be wildly funny." -- New York Times Book Review
"One of America's most lucid and classical poets.... Slavitt's attitude is, as one would expect of a Hebrew as well as Greco-Latin classicist, sharply questioning as well as tragic. He is a poet one reads to know more." -- Booklist
"Slavitt is both smart and wise; he's as well known for his translations of the writers of antiquity as he is for his original work, both poetry and prose.... With a rich sense of humor, a bit of attitude, and a fascination with details, even minutiae, Slavitt tries his hand at new and curious measures and forms as well as seemingly free-range meditations -- or, one might say, meanderings." -- Library Journal
PRAISE FOR DAVID R. SLAVITT
-Slavitt's touch is light, and he writes beautifully.... His satire is sharp, and he can be wildly funny.- -- New York Times Book Review
-One of America's most lucid and classical poets.... Slavitt's attitude is, as one would expect of a Hebrew as well as Greco-Latin classicist, sharply questioning as well as tragic. He is a poet one reads to know more.- -- Booklist
-Slavitt is both smart and wise; he's as well known for his translations of the writers of antiquity as he is for his original work, both poetry and prose.... With a rich sense of humor, a bit of attitude, and a fascination with details, even minutiae, Slavitt tries his hand at new and curious measures and forms as well as seemingly free-range meditations -- or, one might say, meanderings.- -- Library Journal
