The Vigil : Poems
Author(s): C. K. Williams
Nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award
The Vigil, which first appeared in 1997, finds contemporary American master-poet C. K. Williams taking a more reflective and empathetic turn in his work. As Jonathan Aaron wrote in The Boston Globe: "A matchless explorer of the burdens of consciousness, Williams has always written brilliantly about human pain, that which we inflict upon others and upon ourselves, and that which we experience in dreading what we're fated for. In The Vigil Williams affirms the uncanny resiliency of love as solace for pain—what he calls 'these invisible links that allure, these transfigurations even of anguish that hold us' ('The Neighbor'). It is a mystery he has probed before, but never with quite such sympathy and candor."
Review(s):
"Williams is famous for his long verse line. An admirable instrument indeed, it is an Offenbach Barcarole of a line, seductively wafting us over the deeps Williams plumbs and charming attention away from the narrowness of the channel of subject matter through which he steers." - Booklist
National Books Critics Circle Awards - Nominee (1996), Nominated National Book Critics Circle Awards - Nominee (1996), Nominated National Book Critics Circle Award - Nominee (1996), Short-listed Pulitzer Prize - Finalist (1998)
ISBN: 9780374525545