Here at Last is Love: Selected Poems of Dunstan Thompson
Ebook
Overview
Dunstan Thompson was an American poet of great promise who burst onto the Anglo-American literary scene during World War II. In the words of one contemporary, Thompson was one of the rising “stars of modern poetry,” a writer who might one day join the pantheon of poets like Hart Crane, W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and Dylan Thomas. And yet Thompson more or less disappeared from public view by the early 1950s. After publishing two volumes of poetry, a travel book, and a novel, Thompson had only a few scattered magazine publications until his death. A posthumous volume was privately printed in England, but the circulation was small. Here at Last is Love: Selected Poems is the definitive, authorized selection of Thompson’s best work, revealing to a wider public the literary vision of a “lost master.” The introduction by editor Gregory Wolfe offers the first extended narrative in print relating Thompson’s complex personal story. The afterword by distinguished poet and critic Dana Gioia provides a thorough--and just--assessment of his poetic achievement. Thompson’s early poetry was not only technically innovative, but saturated with the language and the drama of gay experience during World War II. Yet just a few years after the war, Thompson returned to the Catholic faith of his childhood, only to find that his new poetic voice was out of sync with the times. In spite of the difficulties he faced in his later years, Thompson did not give up writing poetry, continuing to produce quality work. After his reconversion, the poetry shifted in tone and form from a lush romanticism to an urbane classicism. The later work covers a wide range of subjects, from studies of historical figures to devotional lyrics. This volume will not only stir up the debate about Thompson’s sexual and religious passions, but also help complete the history of twentieth-century Anglo-American poetry, finally making his work available to scholars and lovers of poetry everywhere.
”Dunstan Thompson is an immortal diamond too long lost to poetry
readers. Here are poems that show the workings of a complex
interiority in touch with history’s quirks, the world at war,
personal relationships, and struggles of the human heart."
--Jerry Harp, author of ,Creature, Gatherings, and Urban
Flowers, Concrete Plains
“This remarkable volume should complicate efforts to make a
conversion narrative out of Thompson’s poetry. Theological and
erotic ‘loneliness’ in the early work are inextricable from and
further enriched by an astonishing sensibility concerning war. What
could belong more to Catholic tradition than poetry that joins
contemplation, eroticism, and physical suffering?"
--Martha Serpas, author of The Diener and The Dirty Side
of the Storm
"Here, for the first time, Gregory Wolfe draws poems from
Thompson’s entire writing life, including his harrowing, erotic
wartime poetry and his almost entirely unavailable, more reflective
work of maturity. In doing so, he brings to new audiences the work
of an essential mid-century poet, one I am confident will become
much more important as his readership expands."
--Kevin Prufer co-editor of Dunstan Thompson: On the Life &
Work of a Lost American Master
"Dunstan Thompson’s fame underwent an eclipse, an injustice this
volume strives to remedy. The preface by Gregory Wolfe and
afterword by Dana Gioia begin the task of locating and elucidating
Thompson’s excellence, both as a novice and a mature poet."
--Alfred Corn, author of Unions
"I am happy to see poems that haven’t appeared in anthologies for
decades restored, with much else of value, in this selection edited
by Gregory Wolfe. Here at Last is Love, indeed, and here again is
Dunstan Thompson, with a lyricism and a faith that remain rare in
our poetry."
--Mark Jarman, author of Bone Fires: New and Selected
Poems
"This volume is a truly significant addition to twentieth-century
American poetry and, even more, a vivid, heartbreaking, and
authentic contribution to the core poetry of the Catholic
imagination."
--Paul Mariani, author of Epitaphs for the Journey: New,
Selected, and Revised Poems
Product Details
- Title : Here at Last is Love: Selected Poems of Dunstan Thompson
- Authors:
- Thompson, Dunstan
- Wolfe, Gregory
- Publisher: Slant
- Publication Date: 2015
- ISBN: 9781498218115
Dunstan Thompson (1918-75) was a Harvard-educated poet and author who was considered a rising star in the Anglo-American literary scene during World War II after the publication of two critically acclaimed collections. Shortly thereafter he disappeared from public life, to the surprise of many admirers. Now, forty years after his death, the publication of his selected poems reveals a deep inner conflict about his Catholic and gay identities that led to a personal crisis after the war. The next phase of Thompson's career took place out of public view, in part because the changes in his poetic style and subject matter were out of step with the fashions of the time. This volume makes it possible for readers and critics to recognize Thompson's place in the annals of twentieth-century literature.