Product Description

Beginning with a celebration of childhood and ending with praise for the renewed creativity of age, this collection marries poems that illuminate the journey of life with art from the National Gallery of Art. Turning the pages of Times River unfolds the age-old story of lifes changing hopes and pleasures; loves and losses; struggles, epiphanies, and inner victories. Poets encountered in these pages include Jorge Luis Borges, Anna Akhmatova, and Mary Oliver. Artists such as Marc Chagall, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, and Hiroshige provide the splendid illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #636622 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 124 pages

From the Inside Flap
Beginning with a celebration of childhood and ending with praise for the renewed creativity of age, this worldwide collection marries poems that illuminate the journey of life with splendid artworks from the National Gallery of Art. Turning its pages unfolds the age-old story of life's changing hopes and pleasures; loves and losses; struggles, epiphanies, and inner victories.

Thomas Cole's visionary series The Voyage of Life-four paintings depicting life as a dramatic journey along a wondrous river-serves at the book's evocative framework and introduces sections devoted to childhood, young adulthood, maturity, and old age.

The book opens with William Blake's "Infant Joy" and closes with Walt Whitman's "The Last Invocation." Other poets encountered in these pages include William Shakespeare, Pablo Neruda, Rumi, Rainer Maria Rilke, Dante Alighieri, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, William Butler Yeats and Mary Oliver. "Ars Poetica," a poem in which Jorge Luis Borges compares both art and life to a miraculous river, inspires the book's title.

Works by artists such as Marc Chagall, Claude Monet, Walker Evans, Vincent van Gogh, Hiroshige, and Johannes Vermeer provide the magnificent illustrations. A wonderful way to celebrate life's turning points and reflect on its mysteries, this unique anthology is for anyone who loves art and poetry.

About the Author
Kate Farrell, a poet who has taught at Columbia University and elsewhere, also edited Art & Love, An Illustrated Anthology of Love Poetry; Art & Nature: An Illustrated Anthology of Nature Poetry; and Art & Wonder: An Illustrated Anthology of Visionary Poetry, all published by Bulfinch in conjunction with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is the author, with Kenneth Koch, of Sleeping on the Wing, a popular handbook about reading and writing poetry, and Talking to the Sun: An Illustrated Anthology of Poetry for Young People.

Customer Reviews

Exquisite and Inspirational
As a writer, I was given this book as a gift by my best friend. It is like no other poetry or art anthology I have seen. The colors, thoughts, images, and ideas combine to form a breathtaking view of life and all its idiosyncrasies. Wisdom shines through the pages. I highly recommend it.

A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE
I truly enjoyed reading this anthology. I own numerous collections of poetry but have never found one that combines poems of such passion with such beautiful art (art that in fact echances the poems). I hope that Kate Farrell will continue to put together such collections of verse as this one. This book containes a number of poems that I remembered reading a long time ago, wanted to read again, but could never find. I am glad that some of my searching has ended. This is a tremendous and admirable achievement. I highly recommend it.

Definitely Worth Buying
This is one of the most beautiful poetry anthologies I have ever read. After I finished reading through it the first time, I read it twice more during the same weekend. The poetry is at turns passionate and serene, and the art works are an added bonus to a beautiful and worthwhile book which leaves you feeling as though the world will, no matter the latest fear or disaster, continue on a path as carefully laid as the stars are placed in the heavens. I highly recommend this anthology.