Selected Poems, 1965-1975

Margaret Atwood

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1987 - Poetry - 240 pages

Gathered from Margaret Atwood's work over the decade of 1965-1975, Selected Poems 1 is a lasting collection from one of our most celebrated contemporary writers.

Margaret Atwood's early poetry garnered widespread critical recognition and helped establish her reputation as one of the most provocative modern literary talents. Selected Poems 1 draws from six volumes published early in Atwood's career: The Circle Game (1966), which received the Governor General's Award; The Animals in That Country (1968); Procedures for Underground (1970); The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970); Power Politics (1971); and You Are Happy (1974). In these early poems, Atwood considers the space between the cruelties of civilization and the wonders of nature, the dissonance of Canadian identity, and the line where beauty becomes sinister. With poems that are "glistening with terse, bright images, untentative, closing like a vise" (New York Times), this is an essential collection to be treasured for years to come.

Contents

• This is a photograph of me: 8
• The circle game: 14
• P R: 25
• Some objects of wood and stone: 31
• Against still life: 37
• The explorers: 44
• A foundling: 50
• Elegy for the giant tortoises: 56
• Speeches for Dr Frankenstein: 64
• Backdrop addresses cowboy: 70
• The reincarnation of Captain Cook: 77
• JOURNAL I: 80
• Paths and thingscape: 86
• Departure from the bush: 92
• war in retrospect: 98
• The double voice: 104
• Thoughts from underground: 111
• Game after supper: 118
• Midwinter presolstice: 121
• Projected slide of an unknown soldier: 127
• Habitation: 133
• Carrying food home in winter: 139
• After the agony: 146
• We are hard: 152
• it: 158
• Contents: 164
• man and firing squad: 178
• You are happy: 187
• Owl song: 194
• CIRCEMUD POEMS: 201
• Isnot: 224
• Four auguries: 230
• There is only one of everything: 236

About the author

MARGARET ATWOOD is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to The Handmaid's Tale (now a Hulu series) and its sequel The Testaments, her novels include The Blind Assassin (winner of the Booker Prize), Alias Grace (winner of the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy), The Robber Bride, Cat's Eye, The Penelopiad, The Heart Goes Last, and Hag-Seed, a novel revisitation of Shakespeare's play The Tempest, for the Hogarth Shakespeare Project. Her latest book of short stories is Stone Mattress: Nine Tales. She is also the author of the graphic novel Angel Catbird (with co-creator Johnnie Christmas). Margaret Atwood lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Selected Poems, 1965-1975; Mariner book; Selected Poems, Margaret Atwood; Volume 1 of Selected Poems: 1965 - 1975, Margaret Atwood
• Author: Margaret Atwood
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1987
• ISBN: 0395404223, 9780395404225
• Length: 240 pages
• Subjects: Poetry / American / Asian American & Pacific Islander; Poetry / Anthologies (multiple authors); Poetry / Canadian; Poetry / Caribbean & Latin American; Poetry / General; Poetry / Subjects & Themes / General; Poetry / Women Authors