The Waltz He was Born for: An Introduction to the Writing of Walt McDonaldAndrew Hudgins, Janice Whittington Texas Tech University Press, 2002 - 256 pages Texas Poet Laureate Walt McDonald has published more than eighteen volumes of award-winning poetry. A poet of the landscape, of war and flying, of people just working hard, McDonald is master of the vital image and sound. And he is a poet whose work invites writers such as these gathered here to find and define the elements that delight and fascinate. Each contributor to this volume has followed his own trek of discovery in McDonald's harsh landscapes of arroyos and hardscrabble, in his skies filled with joy and terrors, in those night sweats of pilots. Here, in the territory Walt McDonald has claimed, these writers have found gold. Their essays analyze McDonald's writings about war and the veteran's return to civilian life, the regional grounding of his far-reaching verities, and the writer himself. Some discuss his aesthetic strategies; others examine McDonald in relation to other writers. Still others explore the religious imagery, thought, and implications of McDonald's poetry. One looks at the poet within the context of his fiction, A Band of Brothers, McDonald's elegiac and only collection of short stories. Concluding the study is an interview with McDonald. "[His] is the voice of Texas, a landscape that has inspired countless pages of fine prose, but had lacked its defining poet before McDonald, with what seems in retrospect like astonishing ease, filled the role." from Andrew Hudgins's introduction "What McDonald does--has always done--is to offer a modest proposal for stemming what he eloquently depicts as an unconscionable moment in life. He knows that the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, so he pleads for a sort of cosmic compassion, even if the compassion is unearned and the cosmos fundamentally merciless." --Jerry Bradley |
Table des matières
The Poetry of Walt McDonald | 16 |
The Personal History of Walt McDonald | 30 |
Walt McDonalds Peacekeeping Soldiers | 37 |
A Plea for a Deeper Understanding | 48 |
Walt McDonalds Beautiful Wasteland | 62 |
The Texas Poems of Walt McDonald | 80 |
Wildness andQ Domesticity in the Poems of Walt McDonald | 92 |
Walt McDonald Poet of the Southwest | 100 |
An Introduction to Walt McDonalds Poetic Journey of Faith | 162 |
Anagogical Closure in Walter McDonalds Burning the Fence | 175 |
Perseverance in Walt McDonalds Poetry | 185 |
Forms of Incarnation in the Recent Poetry of Walt McDonald | 195 |
An Interview with Walt McDonald | 216 |
Notes | 227 |
Works Cited | 232 |
Works by Walt McDonald | 239 |
Poetry to Trespass For | 111 |
Images of Mans Acceptance of His Place in Time | 122 |
Concerns of Imagination in Walt McDonald and Wallace Stevens | 134 |
Walt McDonalds Vision of the Artist | 148 |
Works about Walt McDonald | 239 |
Contributors Notes | 246 |
249 | |
Autres éditions - Tout afficher
The Waltz He was Born for: An Introduction to the Writing of Walt McDonald Andrew Hudgins,Janice Whittington Affichage d'extraits - 2002 |
Expressions et termes fréquents
Abilene Christian University allusions American anagogical Andrew Hudgins artist Band of Brothers beautiful wasteland Blessings the Body Body Gave Burning the Fence cactus Caliban in Blue Christianity and Literature Cloudy Concho River Counting Survivors cowboy darkness death Donald experience eyes faith father feel fiction Flying Dutchman friends Frost grace human images imagination incarnation landscape light literary live Llano Estacado Lubbock Matters McDon McDonald's poems Mesas metaphor mountains mystery narrator never Night Landings Noise of Saigon North Texas Press Ohio State University perseverance pilot poem's poet poetic Rafting the Brazos reader reality region Review says sense Skies Southwestern speaker spin spiritual stanza stars Stevens takes Tech University Press Texas Plains Texas Tech University theme tion University of North Vietnam Vietnam War vision voice Wallace Stevens Walt McDonald Walter Walter McDonald West Texas wife Witching on Hardscrabble words writing