17th century french baroque gardens
17th century french culture
21st century american literature
21st century american poetry
A01=Cole Swensen
american literature
american poetry
andre le norte
aristocracy
Author_Cole Swensen
beauty
Category=DCF
collective ownership
discussion books
engaging
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_poetry
flora and fauna
flowers
formal structure of poetry
gardens
human society
imagery
le norte
louis xiv
new california poetry series
nobility
page turner
poems
poetry
property
public parks
public vs private
royalty
versailles
Product details
- ISBN 9780520254640
- Weight: 227g
- Dimensions: 178 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 08 Apr 2008
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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These poems are about gardens, particularly the seventeenth-century French baroque gardens designed by the father of the form, Andre Le Notre. While the poems focus on such examples as Versailles, which Le Notre created for Louis XIV, they also explore the garden as metaphor. Using the imagery of the garden, Cole Swensen considers everything from human society to the formal structure of poetry. She looks in particular at the concept of public versus private property, asking who actually owns a garden? A gentle irony accompanies the question because in French, the phrase 'le notre' means "ours". Whereas all of Le Notre's gardens were designed and built for the aristocracy, today most are public parks. Swensen probes the two senses of 'le notre' to discover where they intersect, overlap, or blur.
Cole Swensen is the author of eleven previous books of poetry. She is also a translator and has won the PEN USA Award in Literary Translation. Her poetry has won the Iowa Poetry Prize and the San Francisco State Poetry Center Book Award, and she teaches at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
