Have a question? Ask A Librarian for live help!

UNDERGRADUATE LIBRARY

217.333.3477 | 1402 West Gregory | Urbana, IL 61801

« Summer Reads: The Undergrad's Graphic Novel Collection | More News and Events | Summer Reads: The Undergrad's Graphic Novel Collection »

June 10, 2008

Summer Reads: The Undergrad's Poetry Collection

Whether you are a poetry aficionado or a devoted poetry-phobe, summer is the perfect season to read some verse. Not convinced? Consider: poems are more condensed than novels, and can be read faster. Plus, you don’t have to read a book of poetry from beginning to end—you can flip around, reading only what interests you at the moment. That’s quite a perk for the less-than-motivated summer reader, whose attention span may be less than impressive (Yours Truly falls into this category). On the other hand, if you’re serious about hunkering down and reading something cover-to-cover, a collection of verse will offer you beauty and insight. You’ll also have the reward of seeing not just the (figurative) trees, but the (equally figurative) forest that the poet sought to create for you.

In case you skimmed that first paragraph in true lazy-summer style, here’s a quick recap: poetry has something for everyone! Here are some suggestions from the Undergrad’s collection:

Call Number: 811 Y858j

If you don’t have much time but want a stunning read, Kevin Young’s Jelly Roll: A Blues will knock your socks off, then put them back on again in a way you had never considered, but find aesthetically pleasing. Young’s super-short lines and vivid descriptions bring the blues into your home or backyard hammock. It doesn’t hurt that these are primarily love poems, charged with all of the angst and ecstasy that goes with relationships.


Call Number: 811 T3462e

Poetry not your thing? No worries. Diane Thiel’s Echolocations is as accessible as a zero-depth entry pool, and twice as enjoyable. Unless the pool has a waterslide like CRCE’s—then it’s pool one, poetry goose egg. But I digress. Thiel writes in full sentences, and for the most part describes daily life. Thing is, she does so with language that makes you realize that life is a heck of a lot more exciting and intense and meaningful than you’d thought before reading her work.


Call Number: 811 K564n cop.2

If you’re looking to have your heart wrenched and your stomach turned, Suji Kwock Kim’s Notes From The Divided Country will fit the bill. The poems wander without apology, covering a vast range of forms and content. She writes about her next-door neighbors and the Japanese occupation of Korea with the same intense, sensory attention, foregrounding the grotesque in nature and in human nature.


Call Number: 811 K624t

For the hard-core poet or poetry lover looking to dive deeper into the wreck of this fine art, try Galway Kinnell’s Three Books. (Extra points if you know the poet whose metaphor I’ve stolen, and extra-extra points if you can name the local poet who beat me to stealing it in his first book.) The three books in question—Body Rags, Mortal Acts, Mortal Words, and The Past—are stamped with Kinnell’s hallmark perceptiveness and compassion. Open to any page: this guy will show you how it’s done.

Posted by undergrad at June 10, 2008 9:59 AM