{"product_id":"elegy-9780822956488","title":"Elegy","description":"A few days before his death in 1996, Larry Levis mentioned to his friend and former instructor Philip Levine that he had an all-but-completed manuscript of poems. Levine had years earlier recognized Levis as the most gifted and determined young poet I have ever had the good fortune to have in one of my classes; after Levis's death, Levine edited the poems Levis had left behind. What emerged is this haunting collection, \u003ci\u003eElegy\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The poems were written in the six years following publication of his previous book, \u003ci\u003eThe Widening Spell of the Leaves\u003c\/i\u003e, and continue and extend the jazz improvisations on themes that gave those poems their resonance. There are poems of sudden stops and threats from the wild: an opossum halts traffic and snaps at pedestrians in posh west Los Angeles; a migrant worker falls victim to the bites of two beautiful black widow spiders; horses starve during a Russian famine; a thief, sitting in the rigging of Columbus's ship, contemplates his work in the New World. The collection culminates in the elegies written to a world in which culture fragments; in which the beasts of burden--the horses, the migrant workers--are worked toward death; a world in which Love's an immigrant, it shows itself in its work. \/ It works for almost nothing; a world in which you were no longer permitted to know, \/ Or to decide for yourself, \/ Whether there was an angel inside you, or whether there wasn't. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eElegy\u003c\/i\u003e, as Levine says, was written by one of our essential poets at the very height of his powers. His early death is a staggering loss for our poetry, but what he left is a major achievement that will enrich our lives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Pittsburgh Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/30\/1997\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780822956488\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 96\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 5.70w x 0.10d","brand":"Larry Levis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43140466999477,"sku":"9780822956488","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_5b25beec-cd19-47fa-a184-27d70ca282c8.jpg?v=1695699813","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/elegy-9780822956488","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}