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Title: The Selected Poems of Janet Lewis by Janet Lewis, R. L. Barth ISBN: 0-8040-1024-2 Publisher: Swallow Pr Pub. Date: May, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: A century of wisdom, distilled
Comment: Janet Lewis was an extraordinary poet. She was still writing into her 99th year. Though best known for her excellent novels of historical fiction (i.e. The Wife of Martin Guerre), Lewis' poems are written with a strong, gentle touch, utterly unpretentious. Find the time in your busy life to take a walk with Janet Lewis.

Rating: 5
Summary: Simplicity becomes complex
Comment: Ohio University Press/Swallow Press, located in Athens, Ohio, has put out a handsome collection of Lewis' poems, ranging from 1918 to 1994. Poetry was her first and last love, and this is obvious in Lewis' writings. Her diction is clean and spare; this is the real Poetry Mc-Coy - no extra words whatsoever. It isn't high-minded either; there aren't any of the tricks or thorny obscurities that often drive newcomers away from poetry. Lewis focuses on nature; animals and natural settings. Even the things she writes on that are not strictly "nature" are infused with the essence of it; her piece, "The Tennis Players," includes notes on the changing of the sunlight at dusk, and, after all, they're playing tennis on the lawn. All poetry, I think, should be read out loud, but especially poetry such as Lewis'. She is not dogmatic about rhyme, yet it's in there, as subtle half-rhymes, or those that skip a few lines before chiming in. These words work best when they're read, and left to float and settle in the air, like a pregnant pause about to give birth. Lewis' poems stretch for no more than, say, twenty lines, and usually they number less than that, being potent as they are. Barth's notes on each poem are a lovely addition to the book; they help explain an obscure reference, or whom or what in Lewis' life inspired a specific poem. Lewis wrote a number of elegies for relations and friends; these notes are helpful, to understand why these people were important. These notes round out the poems, making them fuller and more enjoyable.

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