ENGLISH

Ours

By André , Le Nôtre , André; Swensen , Cole; Le Nôtre

Book information

Publisher
University of California Press
Year
2008
ISBN
0520254635, 978-0-520-25463-3, 9780520941564, 052094156X, 9781282360525, 1282360523, 978-0-520-25464-0
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
256 kB (262631 bytes)
Series
New California poetry
Edition
1
Pages
114\114
Time added
2015-12-23 22:00:00
-- 1613-1700-- 1613-1700 -- Poetry. Gardens. GardensAndréAndre. Literature. POETRY -- American -- General.French -- Poetry. Le NôtreFrench. Le NotreGardens -- Poetry. Gardens

Description

These poems are about gardens, particularly the seventeenth-century French baroque gardens designed by the father of the form, André Le Nôtre. While the poems focus on such examples as Versailles, which Le Nôtre created for Louis XIV, they also explore the garden as metaphor. Using the imagery of the garden, Cole Swensen considers everything from human society to the formal structure of poetry. She looks in particular at the concept of public versus private property, asking who actually owns a garden? A gentle irony accompanies the question because in French, the phrase "le nôtre" means "ours." Whereas all of Le Nôtre's gardens were designed and built for the aristocracy, today most are public parks. Swensen probes the two senses of "le nôtre" to discover where they intersect, overlap, or blur.

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