The History of ForgettingLawrence Raab's richest work to date-his saddest, funniest, most personal, and most searching book Of Lawrence Raab 's 1972 debut, Mark Strand wrote: "This is a first book with more authority and wisdom in it than most poets are able to manage in their entire careers. I am amazed by its casualness and clarity, its forcefulness, its engrossing strangeness." Mystery and strangeness remain at the heart of Raab's work, but now they are revealed more fully through the world around us-everyday deceptions, inexplicable violence, unexpected tenderness, the comedy of hope and desire. In one poem, Proust appears in Raab's class to confront a student who disputes the great author's claim that "the true paradises are the lost paradises." And in the title poem, set just before the Fall, the snake alone understands how people will come to yearn "for whatever they'd lost, and so to survive/ they'd need to forget." |
Contents
II | 3 |
III | 5 |
IV | 7 |
V | 8 |
VI | 9 |
VII | 11 |
VIII | 13 |
IX | 15 |
XXXIII | 48 |
XXXIV | 49 |
XXXV | 51 |
XXXVI | 53 |
XXXVII | 54 |
XXXVIII | 55 |
XXXIX | 56 |
XL | 57 |
X | 16 |
XI | 17 |
XII | 18 |
XIII | 19 |
XIV | 20 |
XV | 21 |
XVI | 23 |
XVII | 24 |
XVIII | 26 |
XIX | 27 |
XX | 28 |
XXI | 29 |
XXII | 30 |
XXIII | 32 |
XXIV | 33 |
XXV | 36 |
XXVI | 38 |
XXVII | 39 |
XXVIII | 40 |
XXIX | 41 |
XXX | 42 |
XXXI | 43 |
XXXII | 47 |
XLI | 58 |
XLII | 59 |
XLIII | 61 |
XLIV | 62 |
XLV | 64 |
XLVI | 66 |
XLVII | 68 |
XLVIII | 69 |
XLIX | 73 |
L | 75 |
LI | 77 |
LII | 78 |
LIII | 80 |
LIV | 81 |
LV | 82 |
LVI | 84 |
LVII | 86 |
LVIII | 88 |
LIX | 90 |
LX | 91 |
LXI | 93 |
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Common terms and phrases
According to Freud afraid afternoon André Breton apple astonishing is beautiful begin believe Brisbane butterfly child clouds DAVID MELTZER death Dinosaurs door Ecstatic everything eyes Faithless father Fear feel felt gone Guggenheim Foundation happens Hawthorne hear HISTORY OF FORGETTING Hurricane Season imagine Japanese beetle keep kill king Kinjurō knew light look back lost luck MATTHEW ARNOLD mean Mellon Foundation melody moon morning mother mountains movie Murdercycle Nathaniel Hawthorne never night once past Perhaps picture play RAAB Visible Signs rain raised her hand reason reminds rise says Proust Scythe shadow silence singing smiles Snow soft eyes someone soon storm story Supernatural Forces surprise tell there's things thought told trees true paradises turned TV Guide Twelfth Night understand Venice want to remember watch Weed Whacker Williams College wind window witch wondering word write yearn