Cemetery Nights - (Carnegie Mellon Classic Contemporary Poetry) by Stephen Dobyns (Paperback)

About the Book

"In Cemetery Nights, Dobyns explores a full range of human experience, from the fabulous storytelling of our dreams to the mute, explosive passions of domestic life, from vital distortions of familiar myths to strange tableaux of creation and death. Most of the poems are narratives-often frightening and sometimes downright funny-spun with a dark extravagance and aimed, with striking exactness, at our essential lives. The world of Cemetery Nights is haunted by regret, driven by desire and need, illuminated by daring make-believe; Mr. Dobyns has created here a remarkable bridge between pure entertainment and deep psychological insight"--

Book Synopsis

Poetry that captures the highs and lows of human life.

In Cemetery Nights, Dobyns explores a full range of human experiences, from the fabulous storytelling of our dreams to the mute, explosive passions of domestic life, from vital distortions of familiar myths to strange tableaux of creation and death. Most of the poems are narratives--often frightening and sometimes downright funny--spun with a dark extravagance and aimed, with striking exactness, at our essential lives. The world of Cemetery Nights is haunted by regret, driven by desire and need, and illuminated by daring make-believe. The result is a collection of poems that offer a remarkable bridge between pure entertainment and deep psychological insight.

Review Quotes

"Dobyns' work demonstrates depth of structure, phrasing, and narrative ability, which is his most conspicuous asset."-- "Booklist"

"Stephen Dobyns is . . . a satirist and absurdist, unsparing chronicler of the body's runaway appetites and the body politic's rampant festerings, a searing moralist camouflaged in a manic style and a flair for the macabre."-- "The Washington Post"

"Stephen Dobyns's poems are brave, ravenous, intensely moving, and utterly his own."-- "Thomas Lux"

About the Author

Born in Orange, New Jersey, Stephen Dobyns has published twenty-four novels in genres ranging from the literary to his Saratoga detective series. He has written two nonfiction books about the craft of poetry, as well as fourteen collections of his poems. Black Dog, Red Dog, Dobyns's fifth book of poems, a National Poetry Series selection, was reprinted as an early Carnegie Mellon Classic Contemporary edition.