"Delusion" suggests that Merrill (for such an autobiographical poem, the author's name now seems appropriate) doubts what he has seen. Although readers will not find such purgation in Merrill’s poetry, Nights and Days explores the issue of sexual addiction as well as the source of the anxiety he expresses in autobiographical poems such as "The Broken Home" and "The Thousand and Second Night." Nights and Days won the National Book Award in Poetry. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. A beautiful and mystical collection, full of powerful imagery. Praised for his stylish elegance, moral sensibilities, and transformation of autobiographical moments into deep and complex meditations, Merrill’s work spans genres—including plays and prose—but the bulk of his artistic expression can be found in his poetry. Start by marking “Nights and Days” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Special Collections, Washington U. Merrill Holding Nights and Days. James Merrill was recognized as one of the leading poets of his generation. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. Stephen Yenser notes that in the poem's concluding lines "the narrative past tense is resonant" (Consuming Myth 117), and Hammer's analysis of the poem shows the significance of the movement in the drafts from the present tense "are" to the past "were" in the line "you were everywhere beside me" (373). "Days of 1964" is the concluding poem of Merrill's Nights and Days (1966), which won the 1967 National Book Award. For the Sultan becomes the poet at the beginning, who is also alone, waking, in the Orient, and divided from himself" (Consuming Myth 136). Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. With his name to front free endpaper. From the library of swiss - american - irish poet Chuck Kruger. What is this Then between Us? As Hammer shows in his biography, the affair was virtually over by the time Nights and Days was published. appropriate to a range of poets of the 'modern temper' from Loy to Lowell" (167). Very good condition with some minor signs of external wear. The postcards seem related to the erotic photos Jackson and Merrill kept of the men who passed through their home in Athens. Please try again. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. 56 pages. Nights and Days. The two long poems, "The Mad Scene", and "Time" were my favorites, although the first three were also among the strangest. In "The Broken Home," Merrill considers the effects of his parents' divorce, his fear of his mother's disapproval, and the way he follows in his own way ("inversely") the example of his father's fixation on "sex / And business" (CP 197). To judge by the manuscripts, the poem develops out of the speaker's encounter with his aging housekeeper, Kleo, who is heavily made-up, climbing the "steep hill" (Mount Lycabettus) near his house for a romantic tryst. 13,5 cm x 21 cm. Most of the time, I was not grounded in these poems. Merrill admired Porter, whom he could quote at length (McClatchy 165), and his generation of songwriters: "To their lilt my parents danced and I took my own first steps" (259). A later journal entry contains the phrase, "Startled mute, we had stared. Special Collections, Washington U. It appears first on p. 86 of the journal: "If this is error delusion, may it last long, long," and once more in the journal on p. 125. First edition. The turn from "delusion" to "illusion" softens the tone and allows for the affirmation of passion he feels for the new lover (Strato Mouflouzélis) he addresses in the poem. 56 pages. Although his love might be an illusion in the sense that it cannot last, the passion he feels is real and worth affirming: "If that was illusion, I wanted it to last long; / To dwell, for its daily pittance, with us there" (CP 221). . NY: Knopf, 2001. However, as Stephen Yenser observes, if the reader expects the embrace of the Sultan and Scheherazade to imply a resolution to the poem, instead one is "plunged back into the real world of blindness and befuddlement and loneliness. I must have picked a bad time to read this book. / I kept on walking" (p. 125); and this phrasing appears in numerous handwritten manuscripts. To ask a question about Nights and Days ” as want to read: Error book! Mugging ( Hammer 336 ) prime members enjoy free Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV,... And I Scheherazade part in `` the Thousand and Second Night, '' She... This site provides students and fans of James Merrill nature is found in his biography, unempathetic! 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