An accessible retrospective of the great poet. In the tradition of Wallace Stevens, Charles Tomlinson's Selected Poems ―encompassing his work from 1955 to 1997―records the logic of human perception, embodying aspects of both tragedy and possibility. Here is the long-awaited compendium of the work of one of England's contemporary masters and one of this century's great poets. The English poet Charles Tomlinson has undergone a long apprenticeship to American poetry and the American landscape, and has even produced a memoir called Some Americans . It's curious, then, that he's not more of a household word in this country, as are Ted Hughes or Philip Larkin. Perhaps he's paid the price for the lack of dirty laundry in his art. In any case, his is a capacious spirit, a journeying mind. Tomlinson's intuition has always been to look outward, to identify the object in order to make the inner self transparent. The tone is modest, the intonation subtle. He is invariably a man for whom, as one of his book titles reaffirms, seeing is believing. Something at the edge of things attracts Tomlinson's imagination. He likes to position himself in extreme situations, seeking out the physical side of extremity while keeping tight control over his verse. He makes the value of awareness palpable, and in his "language of water, light and air" there is a refreshing absence of the first-person pronoun. Indeed, having published his work since the dawn of the Elvis era, Tomlinson has supplied a helpful corrective to the postwar emphasis on the ego. Even the heavenly bodies are seen not on the poet's terms, but on their own, "like the full / Moon slowly given to the night, / A possession that is not to be possessed." --Mark Rudman Above Carrara Above Manhattan Above The Rio Grande Adam Aesthetic After A Death Against Extremity Against Travel All Afternoon Annunciation Antecedents: 6. Something: A Direction Ararat Ariadne And The Minotaur Arizona Desert Assassin At Holwell Farm At Stoke At The Autumn Equinox The Atlantic Autumn Piece A Backward Glance Before The Concert Black Brook The Blade Blaubeuren The Butterflies Canal Carrara Revisited Casarola Catacomb The Cavern Cezanne At Aix Chance Charlotte Corday The Churchyard Wall Civilities Of Olamplight The Compact: At Volterra The Crane A Death In The Desert; In Memory Of Homer Vance Descarts And The Stove A Doggerel For My Seventieth Birthday The Door The Door In The Wall Down From Colonnata During Rain Eden The Epilogue Event Far Point Farewell To Van Gogh The Faring Fiascherino Fireflies The Flood For A Godchild For A Granddaughter: 1. On The Terrace For A Granddaughter: 2. To Be Read Later On For A Granddaughter: 3. Jessica Learned To Kiss For A Granddaughter: 6. To My Daughter For Danton For Miriam Fountain The Fox Gallery Frondes Agrestes A Garland For Thomas Eakins Geese Going South A Given Grace Gladstsone Street Glass Grain Hacienda The Hand At Callow Hill Farm Harvest Hawks Hay Head Hewn With An Axe The Headland Hill Walk How Far How Still The Hawk Idyll Images Of Perfection In Arden In Memory Of George Oppen In The Borghese Gardens In The Fullness Of Time John Maydew Or The Allotment Jubilacion Les Trampas U.s.a. Letter To Uehata The Lighthouse The Littleton Whale The Marl Pits A Meditation On John Constable The Mediterranean The Metamorphosis The Miracle Of The Bottle And The Fishes The Moment More Foreign Cities Mr. Brodsky Mushrooms Night Fishers Nine Variations In A Chinese Winter Setting Northern Spring The Oaxaca Bus Ode To Arnold Schoenberg Of Beginning Light Of Lady Grange On The Hall At Stowey On The Principle Of Blowclocks On Water The Operation Orion Over Farne Over Brooklyn Bridge Oxen: Ploughing At Fiesole Paring The Apple Paris In Sixty-nine Picking Mushrooms By Moonlight The Picture Of J.t. In A Prospect Of Stone The Plaza Portuguese Pieces: 1 Alto Minho Portuguese Pieces: 2 Ponte De Lima Portuguese Pieces: 3 Soajo Portuguese Pieces: 4 Swallows Portuguese Pieces: 6 In Lisbon Prometheus Prose Poem Response To Hopkins A Retrospect: 1951-91 The Return: 1. The Road The Return: 2. Between Serra And Rocchetta The Return: 3. Graziella The Return: 4. The Fireflies Revolution A Rose For Janet San Fruttuoso: The Divers The Scream Sea Change Sea Poem Second Song A Sense Of Distance The Shadow The Shaft Siena In Sixty-eight Sky Writing Snapshot The Snow Fences Snow Signs Song The Stair Stone Speech Swimming Chenango Lake The Tax Inspector Their Voices Rang To Be Engraved On The Skull Of A Cormorant To Ivor Gurney To Vasko Popa In Rome The Track Of The Deer Tramontana At Lerici Under The Bridge Up At La Serra Ute Mountain Valestrieri Valle De Oaxaca Venice Walks The Way In The Way Of A World The Weather Cocks The Well The Well Winter Encounters Winter Journey, Sels Winter-piece Writing On Sand