W.S. Merwin: Collected Poems 1996-2011 (LOA #241) (Library of America W. S. Merwin Edition)

Merwin is probably rolling over in his grave. Never would he have wanted readers to read his elegant and mesmerizing Folding Cliffs or his last work Vixen in such small type. Squinting is not the way to read great poetry. The words need space to live in. Shame on Library of America to display Merwin's works this way and how jarring to go from the tiny print of Folding Cliffs to the hearty print size of this other works in this volume. A shoddy effort all the way....

There are pros and cons to this edition. First, it is great (and economical) to have all these works in one book. But the presentation is a bit mixed. The type size between poems varies: on the plus side, there are no breaks in lines and the poems are typographically presented as Merwin structured them, but on the minus side, this results in some poems having tiny point size. I have other editions of almost all of these, so I favor the portability of this edition over the cons.

Very interesting modern poetry. Kind of book you can open randomly to any page and find something fun or challenging to read.

Interesting poems from Merwin's later years, far different from his earlier poems.

I came to this second volume of W.S. Merwin's poems after reading the two collections published after the collected set in the Library of America series. I had enjoyed both those volumes - mostly about his experience of his garden in Hawaii - a great deal so turned with interest to this set of poems, which contain a long dramatic epic poem set in the Hawaii of the past and quite a few longer and more philosophical poems. This is in addition to the final collection reprinted here which is very similar to the later collections in its focus on the nature world.I'm pleased to have tried the longer - and very different - poems here. But after experiencing them, I have to say that the later collections are much more to my personal taste.