Nemerov, Howard <br/><br/>
War stories  : poems about long ago and now 
/ Howard Nemerov 
 - Chicago  : University of Chicago Press  , c1987. 
 - ix, 60 p.  ; 21 cm. 
<br/><br/> This well-executed, satisfying collection focuses on Nemerov's experiences as a World War II fighter pilot: "The sweeping swallows low above the swale/ Among the insect victims as they rise/ To be picked off, and peace is satisfied.'' Reconsidered some 40 years later, his war resonates with irony: "That was the good war, the war we won/ As if there were no death, for goodness' sake.'' In fact, the sense of life "in transit'' animates most of these poems: "the world/ Flowing away the way it always does,/ As if it were made of time.'' His subjects range from the topical Halley's comet, the Shuttle disaster, to the personal, like his elegy for a student. At his best, Nemerov weds craft and vision to irony: "Though God be dead, he lived so far away/ His sourceless light continues to fall on us.'' 
<br/><br/> US Poet Laureate 1988-1990 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>0226572439 
<br/><br/><label>LCCN: </label>87005097 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Poetry, American
<br/><br/><label>LC Class. No.: </label>PS3527.E5  / W3 1987 
<br/><br/><label>Dewey Class. No.: </label>811 NEM