Wonderful Words, Silent Truth

Essays on Poetry and a Memoir

Charles Simic

Included in this collection of essays is an autobiographical sketch of the poet's early years in Yugoslavia during World War II

Description

Series

Poets on Poetry

The essays in Wonderful Words, Silent Truth touch Charles Simic's deepest concerns as a poet. The longest piece is an autobiographical narrative of his early years in Yugoslavia during the Second World War. Other contributions in this volume range from essays on philosophy and painting to entries from Simic's notebooks of the last twenty years. One of the essays, "Reading Philosophy at Night," was included in this year's anthology The Best American Essays, 1988, edited by Annie Dillard.

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Contents

Why I Like Certain Poems More Than Others     1
In the Beginning...     3
Reading Philosophy at Night     54
Notes on Poetry and Philosophy     62
Chinese Boxes and Puppet Theaters     69
Visionaries and Anti-Visionaries     72
Caballero Solo     82
Wonderful Words, Silent Truth     85
Thomas Campion     96
Ivan V. Lalic     101
Serbian Heroic Ballads     108
Introduction to the Poetry of Aleksandar Ristovic     113
Art Hodes     117
Notes on Bata Mihailovitch's Paintings     120
William Stafford's "At the Bomb Testing Site"     126