The complete poems of American poet Donald E. Stanford, 1913-1998

This is a complete collection of Donald E. Stanford's poems, including the three chapbooks he published, his privately printed poems and all the extant manuscript poems he did not publish. The textual notes list all the authorial versions, naming the basic text and giving all the variant readings. Tables of Stanford's editions and collections and their tables of contents are presented, and the appendices provide Stanford's own statements about his life and poetry. David Middleton's preface places Stanford's poetry in historical perspective and highlights the salient virtues of his poetic theory and practice.

Text Notes List of Tables Commendatory Preface 1 Foreword 7 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 13 I. New England Earth and Other Poems (1941) For the Audience 17 109 Reflections on Fear 17 109 Monologue 18 109 For Hate 19 109 New England Earth 19 110 A Valentine ["Unproven love is the evading wraith"] 20 110 On a Child Lost in the Woods 21 111 The Grand Mesa 22 111 Wedding Wine 23 111 The Meadowlark 24 112 Noon at Neebish 25 112 Text Notes The Bee 26 113 Letter from Widener Library 26 113 Song 28 114 Birthday Card (for David Stanford) 28 114 Spring 29 115 Sonnet on Graduation 30 115 Sonnet in Autumn 30 116 Rhesus 31 116 The Cartesian Lawnmower 32 117 Country Church 32 117 The Falls 33 117 The Sea Gull 33 118 Summer Scene 34 118 The Thrush 34 118 Bird Call 35 119 II. Poems Added in The Traveler: Allegorical Lyrics (1955) Vacation Harvest 39 119 Bayou 39 119 The Intruder 40 119 The Old Woods 40 120 The Fountain of La Merced Cathedral 41 120 III. Poems Added in The Cartesian Lawnmower and Other Poems (1984) Tussle 45 120 Text Notes For a Book of Elizabethan Madrigal Verse 45 121 IV. Separately Published Poems The Lizard King Here 49 122 A Valentine ["Happy the past and time to be"] 49 122 V. Privately Printed Poems The Funeral March of Life 55 122 Philosophy 56 122 VI. Unpublished Poems Louisiana Winter 61 122 On Viewing an Aztec Pyramid 62 122 The Woodsman 62 123 Sunday Afternoon 63 123 Afternoon of a Poet 65 123 To an Aztec Indian Guide 66 124 On the Death of a Philosopher 66 124 The Hunt 66 124 "These geometric and eternal lines" 67 124 The Dream 68 124 The Loon 68 124 At the Grave of Edward Taylor 69 125 The Oriole at Dusk 70 125 The Return 71 125 Letter to Yvor Winters 71 125 Text Notes Epitaph ["What power can breathe to life again"] 72 125 Prayer 73 126 The Cocktail Party 73 126 Boudoir 74 126 Epitaph ["This flesh must fade, though pure and bright"] 74 126 Eros 75 126 Atomic Apollo 75 126 Toast 75 126 The Personal Muse 75 126 Mr. Cunningham Addresses His Muse, Briefly, Concerning the Bow-Wow Style 76 126 Exile 76 127 Design for Living 76 127 The Blizzard 76 127 After the Blizzard 77 127 Two Love Songs 77 127 To Edward Taylor 78 128 Epigram 79 128 Table of Stanford's Editions and Typescript Collections of Poems 83 Tables of Contents for the Published and Unpublished Collections of Poems 85 Appendices A. New England Earth and Other Poems: Opening Quotation to the Volume and "Foreword" by Yvor Winters 93 Text Notes B. Donald E. Stanford's Unpublished Description of the School of Poetry to Which He Belonged 96 C. Excerpts from an Interview with Donald E. Sanford, May 2, 1984 97 D. Excerpts from an Interview with Donald E. Stanford, May 15, 1992 99 Introduction to Textual Notes 107 Bibliography 115 Index of Titles 133 Index of First Lines 134