New and Selected Poems, 1923-1985

This selection of Warren's wide-ranging verse was published in 1985 and, if I'm not mistaken (and I may well be), won the Pulitzer Prize. The poems themselves, however, go back some six decades.It is remarkable to read and compare the more recent poems with the earlier ones and to see, at least from these examples, that Warren was an amazingly consistent poet in both theme and technique. Nature seems to be his primary area of concern and man's place in nature's elusive design, but he also writes extensively of Time (almost always capitalized), sex, family, and death. In almost every poem one finds images of stars - which seem to fascinate Warren with their mathematical designs; they link the poems with a kind of leitmotif. Warren draws on his Kentucky boyhood for much of his material, in which he depicts not only the hardscrabble life in general but the more specific drama of his relationships with his mother and father. There are lyric poems and ballads; some poems are easily accesible, others come from more personal sources and remain at least partially obscure even after several readings. The problem that arises with any such comprehensive gathering of poems, especially from a writer so prolific, is the probability of repetition, and Warren himself, good as he is, cannot escape this predicament Still even if meaning remains hidden, one can enjoy Warren's considerable dexterity with language and image. He has a vigorous, firm, muscular grasp of subject and technique.The poems come from all of Warren's sixteen major collections and opens with the most recent group of poems. His most famous poetic work, the book-length AUDUBAN: A VISION, is included in its entirety.