Taking the Occasion
by Daniel Brown
2021-01-05 13:56:24
The eighth winner of the New Criterion Poetry Prize is Daniel Brown's Taking the Occasion. From its opening lines, his book sounds a new note in poetry: The thing about the old one about / The tree in the forest and nobody's around / And how it falls...
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The eighth winner of the New Criterion Poetry Prize is Daniel Brown's Taking the Occasion. From its opening lines, his book sounds a new note in poetry: The thing about the old one about / The tree in the forest and nobody's around / And how it falls maybe with a sound, / Maybe not . . . In poem after poem, Mr. Brown plays urban speech rhythms (much as Robert Frost played rural ones) across the back-beat of meter and rhyme. Distinctive in matter as well as in manner, Taking the Occasion addresses subjects that range from a moment's fancy to stirring ruminations on existence. Brown's work repeatedly sounds emotional or philosophical depths, yet he isn't above eliciting a laugh in the process. The New Criterion, which has published poetry since 1984, is recognized as one of the foremost contemporary venues for poetry with a regard for traditional meter and poetic form. Building on its commitment to serious poetry,
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