Collected works by Nella Larsen

Starred review from January 1, 1992
In his first book of verse since "The Collected Poems, 1931-1987", the Polish Nobel laureate appears, like Prospero in "The Tempest," to be laying aside his powers, or at least any lingering yen to be personally responsible for his times. In several poems, he voices impatience and weariness with philosophy, religion, and science. In others, he is relaxedly sensual, although hardly loutish, still informed by the knowledge and history of humane culture that has, throughout his work, been a great redemptive force answering the brutalities of this century. Sometimes, he is playfully, if perhaps a little petulantly, resigned to age and approaching death: "No duties. I don't have to be profound. / I don't have to be artistically perfect. / . . . Let others take care of it. Time for me to play hooky." He is wonderfully listenable, an old man relaying small but definite wisdom through sharp images and clear thoughts, continuing to honorably pursue the vocation that, in "Blacksmith Shop," which opens this book, he discovers has been his since boyhood: "It seems I was called for this: / To glorify things just because they are." ((Reviewed Jan. 1, 1992))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1992, American Library Association.)