To Urania Poems [Paperback]

Combining two books of verse that were first published in his native Russian,To Uraniawas Brodsky's third volume to appear in English. Published in 1988, the year after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, this collection features pieces translated by the poet himself and others, as well as poems written originally in English.

Auden once characterized Brodsky as a traditionalist . . . interested in what lyric poets of all ages have been interested in . . . encounters with nature . . . reflections upon the human condition, death, and the meaning of existence. Reading the poems inTo Urania--by turns cerebral, caustic, comic, and celebratory--we appreciate firsthand a great lyric poet's variety and achievement.

The poet, essayist, and playwrightJoseph Brodsky(1940-96) came to the United States in 1972, an involuntary exile from the Soviet Union. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987 and served as Poet Laureate of the United States in 1991 and 1992.

[Brodsky's] great achievement is to have put back into our own poetic tradition the richness and gaiety of allusion and the sheer learning that most present-day poets in England and America are too inhibited even to try for. It's a relief to read again a poetic language that is not 'ordinary,' that dogs and cats could hardly be expected to understand, but that still further enriches the tradition of Eliot and Auden. John Bayley, The New York Times Book Review

This is philosophical poetry, bearing the mark of what Goethe considered the highest stage in the spiritual development of the individual, which he called 'Respect.' It is a poetry at two poles of human existence: love as it is lived and suffered through, and death almost tasted and feared. . . . As a defense against despair, we have theoeuvreof a man wholly concentrated on his poetry. Czeslaw Milosz, The New York Review of Books