The World Behind the World: Poems

by April Bernard

Overview

An acclaimed poet finds moral and spiritual connection in this fierce, dexterous volume.

Balancing emotional openness with formal restraint, April Bernard proves once again a poet who “harmonizes the raucous and the classic, the songful and the wry, the courtly and the quick” (Wayne Koestenbaum). Throughout her sixth collection, Bernard searches for “the world behind the world,” a spiritual realm of justice and peace, music and grace. The host of saints present in this parallel world includes poets—John Ashbery, Thomas Wyatt, Gerard Manley Hopkins—as well as folklore spirits, animals wild and domestic, and personal ghosts.

Mystical, daring, expertly crafted, and ironic, The World Behind the World embarks on a wide-ranging journey through memory and loss to reach “that other world, where nothing human can wreck us.” Along the way, the poet conjures lush woodlands and icy oceans, wry conversations with voices from the past, and transformative moments of reckoning and healing. Rising up from despair, anger, and grief, this powerful collection proposes a moving, personal faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324036210
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	03/14/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	80
File size:	947 KB

About the Author

April Bernard is the author of five previous poetry collections and two novels. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. The recipient of a Walt Whitman Award, the Stover Memorial Prize in Poetry, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Whitney Humanities Center, she lives in Upstate New York and teaches at Skidmore College and the Bennington College MFA writing seminars.

Editorial Reviews

02/01/2023

In her sixth collection, multi-prize-winning poet Bernard (Brawl and Jag) writes feisty, energetic poems that bridge the expanse between classics and the contemporary, exuding a rich exuberance enhanced by a heartfelt knowledge of the world. She summarizes her view of our government in the shortest poem, "The world has split," by saying "Treachery// gnaws the planks/ of the state," while another poem is encapsulated by its title: "Allen v Farrow." The single prose poem celebrates with awe swimming with a seal, as "air became one medium as we inhabited that other world," and references throughout to birds, dogs, deer, and other creatures evoke our shared space in this world. A poem on pain and our attempts to remedy it includes this beautiful passage, "I would be the dove, tucked/ in the heavy arbor, listening to rain/ tap the leaf lobes." Altogether 10 of the 33 poems are titled with phrases from other poets, including Thomas Wyatt and George Gascoigne. VERDICT Bernard has a sharp, critical eye and an ability to paint a scene quickly while also coloring it with social resonance. Similar word choices occasionally get repeated from poem to poem, but this collection is a marvel, gifting the reader with new subjects, unique perspectives, and an exuberant musicality that nearly leaps across the page. Highly recommended.—Doris Jean Lynch

Library Journal