Jersey Rain: Poems Book

So I've reviewed another of Pinsky's books: The Situation of Poetry, which was not a poetry collection but a diagnosis of poetry. Anyway, this is the first actual collection of poetry of his I'm getting around to finishing, despite liking the guy for a while now. I was originally inspired to take an interest because I ran into a song by Akron/Family, "Samurai," that was adapted from his poem, "Samurai Song." I really loved the song and the poem and so I wanted to hear more from the form poet laureate of the U.S.

I want to say I really loved this collection, but it just didn't hit the mark for me. Is Pinsky a skilled poet? Terribly, terribly skilled. I still love "Samurai Song" and there are some other in the collection I admired: "Ode to Meaning," "Autumn Quartet," "The Green Piano," and "Steel Drum Variations." Ultimately though I found myself still thinking in terms of the comment I posted: either he's too clever or I'm not clever enough. There's something else though, Pinsky likes to meditate on death a lot, many of his poems center around it. There's nothing wrong with that; I like the theme a lot. But the way he does it, it's melancholy in a resigned way, quiet. Not quiet as in reserved, but quiet as in silent. Like there's nothing to be said. Maybe there isn't, honestly, but something about that just didn't capture me like I expected it would. I would say a similar drawback for me was the understated nature of some of his metaphors. I know that the rule of modernism is obscurity but I suppose I can really only suffer that to such an extent.

There were some great things though. I definitely don't regret reading this collection and I already own others of his that I'll no doubt end up reading. He has a way of summoning up classical references that I enjoyed. He mentions Achilles, Thersites, Odysseus, some of my favorites and I think he alludes to them well--an added joy for me as a classicist.

He's got some masterful diction and structure to his poems. At the end though I found myself losing patience. I might have to revisit this in the future. I would recommend this to people who are looking for American poetry of the modernist vein, fairly traditional.

I do feel bad about giving this only 3 stars. "Samurai Song" is a 5-star poem. I just wasn't super impressed like I thought I'd be. OH WELL.