Earth Triumphant: Early Poetry of Conrad Aiken

Conrad Aiken

Nov 2011 · Freshwater Seas · Narrated by Robert Bethune

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3 hr 12 min

Unabridged

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About this audiobook

In Charnel Rose, Conrad Aiken takes the plunge into a deeply metaphysical and surrealistic world, capturing the essence of one aspect of quintessential humanity: how we create and pursue a deeply personal, intensely idealistic, physically and emotionally draining search for love, and how some of us turn away from real love when we do find it, preferring instead to re-invent and re-amplify our idealistic vision of passionate perfection.

He does this through an amazing combination of highly imaginative imagery conveyed through strikingly simple and beautiful poetry, musically complex and intensely rhythmic without empty literary gesture or hollow convention.

The first part of the book is "Senlin," a study of the complex reality of a man who is part stonemason, part philosopher, and possibly part ancient deity.

The second part of the book is "Variations," short, intense poems that ring the changes on intimate relationships.

The third and last part of the book is "Charnel Rose," from which the book takes its name; this explores the passions and self-delusions we all go through in the name of love.

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In Charnel Rose, Conrad Aiken takes the plunge into a deeply metaphysical and surrealistic world, capturing the essence of one aspect of quintessential humanity: how we create and pursue a deeply personal, intensely idealistic, physically and emotionally draining search for love, and how some of ...

About the author

Conrad Potter Aiken was born on August 5, 1889 in Savannah, Georgia. He attended Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, where he edited the school newspaper, played baseball, and won a tennis doubles championship. In 1907, he entered Harvard University and became friends with T.S. Eliot. Knowing he was destined to be a poet from an early age, Aiken is paradoxically regarded by some critics as both a dazzling craftsman and by others as being long-winded and vague. However, many critics feel that he was central to American literature, a "literary period in himself." Aiken is perhaps best known for his 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Selected Poems (1929), but he regarded the poem "Ushant" as his most satisfying work. In almost all of Aiken's works, his overriding concern has been to resolve what might be called a personal identity crisis in terms of the cosmic evolution of consciousness and one's relationship to the world at large. In the 1920s Aiken turned to short story writing to supplement his income. Overall, he published more than 50 titles, including 35 collections of poetry, five novels, one autobiographical essay, and several collections of short stories and criticism. Conrad Aiken died on August 17, 1973 at the age of 84.

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