A Momentary Glory: Last Poems

The passionate testament of a brilliant poet in the face of age, illness, and mortality

The distinguished poet Harvey Shapiro passed away on January 7, 2013. The poems in this book, many of them previously unpublished and discovered only after his death, are a great gift, and the final confirmation of his extraordinary talent. Edited by Shapiro’s literary executor, the poet and critic Norman Finkelstein, these last poems bear an unprecedented gravitas, and yet they are as supple, jazzy, and edgy as Shapiro’s earlier work. All the themes for which he is known are beautifully represented here. There are poems of his experiences in World War II, the erotic life, and of daily moments in Brooklyn and Manhattan, all in search of a worldly wisdom and grace that the poet calls ＂a momentary glory.＂ As Shapiro tells us, the poem ＂Is an Egyptian / ship of the dead, / everything required / for life stored / in its hold.＂ The book includes an introduction by the editor.

HARVEY SHAPIRO published his first book of poetry in 1953. He taught at Cornell University and Bard College before joining the staffs of Commentary and The New Yorker. In 1957 he became an editor of The New York Times Magazine and was editor of The New York Times Book Review from 1975 until 1983. He lived in Brooklyn, New York. NORMAN FINKELSTEIN is a poet and critic, and Shapiro’s literary executor. He is a professor of English at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.