Earthly Delights - (Princeton Contemporary Poets) by Troy Jollimore (Paperback)

About the Book

"Earthly Delights begins with an invocation to the muse and ends with the departure of Odysseus from Ithaca. In between, Troy Jollimore's distinguished new collection ranges widely, with cinematic and adventurous poems that often concern artistic creation and its place in the world. A great many center on films, from Andrei Tarkovsky's Nostalghia to Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. The title poem reflects on Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, while another is an elegy for Gord Downie, the lead singer and lyricist for the cult rock band The Tragically Hip. Other poems address various forms of political insanity, from the Kennedy assassination to today's active shooter drills, and philosophical ideas, from Ralph Waldo Emerson's musings on beauty to John D. Rockefeller's thoughts on the relation between roses and capitalist ethics. The book's longest poem, "American Beauty," returns repeatedly to the film of that name, but ultimately becomes a meditation on the Western history of making and looking, and-like many of the book's poems-an elegy for lost things"--

Book Synopsis

From the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, a new collection of philosophical, elegiac, and wry meditations on film, painting, music, and poetry itself

Earthly Delights begins with an invocation to the muse and ends with the departure of Odysseus from Ithaca. In between, Troy Jollimore's distinguished new collection ranges widely, with cinematic and adventurous poems that often concern artistic creation and its place in the world. A great many center on films, from Andrei Tarkovsky's Nostalghia to Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. The title poem reflects on Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, while another is an elegy for Gord Downie, the lead singer and lyricist for the cult rock band The Tragically Hip. Other poems address various forms of political insanity, from the Kennedy assassination to today's active shooter drills, and philosophical ideas, from Ralph Waldo Emerson's musings on beauty to John D. Rockefeller's thoughts on the relation between roses and capitalist ethics. The book's longest poem, "American Beauty," returns repeatedly to the film of that name, but ultimately becomes a meditation on the Western history of making and looking, and--like many of the book's poems--an elegy for lost things.

Review Quotes

"[A] ruminative, elegant fourth book by Jollimore. . . . As the book's title [Earthly Delights] suggests, Jollimore's delight and pleasure in description is evident in these gorgeously textured poems that are equally full of intellectual inquiry and feeling."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Jollimore presents a new poetry collection richly infused with classical mythology and analysis of classic movies, plays, works of art, and literature, and of relation to creations. . . . Jollimore offers unique perspectives on the self we play at being and the self we are or think we are in poems about singular characters in such films as No Country for Old Men, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Being John Malkovich. Jollimore's immersions raise the question, Are we simply vessels to be filled?"-- "Booklist"

"Sophisticated yet accessible, this sonorous work addresses life in an unillusioned way and will appeal widely."-- "Library Journal"

"The poetry excels . . . where Jollimore incorporates his concern of the contemporary observer with the unique situations of today: corporate public relations, movie theaters, and a devastated environment."---Keene Carter, Colorado Review

About the Author

Troy Jollimore is the author of three previous collections of poetry: Tom Thomson in Purgatory, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award; Syllabus of Errors (Princeton), which was chosen by the New York Times as one of the ten best poetry books of the year; and At Lake Scugog (Princeton). His poems have appeared in the New Yorker, Best American Poetry, McSweeney's, and many other publications. He is professor of philosophy at California State University, Chico. Website www.troyjollimore.com Twitter @TroyJollimore