In Elegy on Toy Piano, Dean Young's sixth book of poems, elegiac necessity finds itself next to goofy celebration. Daffy Duck enters the Valley of the Eternals. Faulkner and bell-bottoms cling to beauty's evanescence.
Even in single poems, Young's tone and style vary. No one feeling or idea takes precedence over another, and their simultaneity is frequently revealed; sadness may throw a squirrelly shadow, joy can find itself dressed in mourning black. As in the agitated \u0022Whirlpool Suite\u0022: \u0022Pain / and pleasure are two signals carried / over one phoneline.\u0022
In taking up subjects as slight as the examination of a signature or a true/false test, and as pressing as the death of friends, Young's poems embrace the duplicity of feeling, the malleability of perception, and the truth telling of wordplay.
- ISBN10 0822958724
- ISBN13 9780822958727
- Publish Date 28 January 2005 (first published 1 January 2005)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Pittsburgh Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 104
- Language English