Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems (Wesleyan Poetry) | 
| Author: Yusef Komunyakaa
Publisher: Wesleyan
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 470408
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 468
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0819567396
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780819567390
ASIN: 0819567396
Publication Date: September 20, 2004
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Condition: Crisp, clean and unread paperback with light shelfwear to the covers and a yellow remainder mark to edge - Still Very Nice!
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Product Description
Best known for Neon Vernacular, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1994, and for Dien Cai Dau, a collection of poems chronicling his experiences as a journalist in Vietnam, Yusef Komunyakaa has become one of America's most compelling poets. Pleasure Dome gathers the poems in these two distinguished books and five others--over two and a half decades of Komunyakaa's work. In addition, Pleasure Dome includes 25 early, uncollected poems and a rich selection of 18 new poems.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Very big and very good. November 11, 2004
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Yusef Komunyakaa, Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems (Wesleyan, 2001)
When they say "new and collected," they mean "new and collected." Clocking in at just shy of five hundred pages, Pleasure Dome does collect, as far as I can tell, the sum total of Pulitzer winner Komunyakaa's work to date. It's a massive book, even larger than Jim Harrison's recent The Shape of the Journey, almost approaching the sheer magnitude of Hardy's Complete Poems, the largest single-author book of poetry to ever reside on my shelf. (Morris' The Earthly Paradise is in twelve volumes.) And while it does get inconsistent at times, the overall recommendation on it is a resonating yes.
Komunyakaa, a Vietnam war vet who began writing while in the bush, infuses much of his poetry with the war. This is not terribly surprising. What is is that, for atleast ninety-five percent of the war poetry, he does not allow the message to run away with the medium. That Komunyakaa's collections Toys in a Field and Dien Cai Dau are some of the most stirring work ever written on the Vietnam experience is testament to the power of McLuhan's oft-used truism "the medium is the message." Komunyakaa lets the story tell the story, and the story is stronger for it.
It is to be expected that no poet can be perfect, and this is true of Komunyakaa. However, the number of times he slips into messagizing mode can be counted here on the fingers of one hand, an absolutely astounding feat in a book of over four hundred pages of poetry; he is truly a master of the poetic art.
This is a book to be browsed through at leisure, not read per se; it took me almost six weeks to get through it, and I'm a speedreader. It demands time and effort, and will offer the reader willing to put them in rewards in kind. ***
 Wonderful collection. November 2, 2004
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Mr. Komunyakaa is a wonderful poet deserving of all the praise he has garnered. This book is a perfect opportunity for new readers to introduce themselves to his charming work.
Simply Brilliant! January 5, 2003
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
Komunyakaa is by far the best American poet writing today. Pay no attention to those who fail to understand his unique way with words. Purists write boring poetry anyway...
brilliance without the grammar September 6, 2002
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
Yusef Komunyakaa is one of the few no-nonsense poets of our time. If you are one who looks for proper grammar in poetry, then maybe you should be reading prose. I have found that most people who enjoy poetry, enjoy it for the (excuse the borrowing) truth and beauty it discovers and is able to share with the reader. Although most sweeping generalizations on "how to" write poetry are flawed, it makes sense that Ezra Pound would want to set forth his own rules about abstraction, ... .... However, it makes no sense to apply rules set forth decades ago about poetry that is being written in the present ... . Pound was a member of a different literary movement than Komunyakaa, and I don't see what his unrelated take on abstraction has to do with Komunyakaa's writing. Komunyakaa is not abstract, and he is able to write about his life experience--including his time in Vietnam--with clarity and elegance. ...I would [also] recommend his book "Dien Cai Dau" which is perhaps his least abstract and most grammatically correct book of poetry....
Komunyakaa: a Magician of Imagery June 18, 2002
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
What Komunyakaa brings so decisively to poetry is an exquisite and pungent language, woven into imagery that draws readers down the corridors of near surreal, yet enthralling, worlds. Forget the obtuse, emotional, and otherwise pseudo-critical 'reviews': Komunyakaa refuses to replicate the limpness and timidity that characterizes so much of the poetry of our day. More to the point, the reader who is truly paying attention comes away from these poems with a kind of vertigo spun from a refreshing interplay of similes and metaphors -- both complex and extended. This applies to every book of his poetry, all of which I highly recommend.
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