The Violence

Ethan Paquin

“The Violence is a compact of determining forces both poet and language must survive, whether they be fact of a day’s events or else lodged in the very fabric of language itself. It is Ethan Paquin’s power that he can admit these furies and survive them.” —Robert Creeley

In his third book of poems, Ethan Paquin puts together a sprawling meditation touching on the loss of love and commitment, the painfulness of memory, and the disorientation as well as the consolations of travel. In reaction to the pointed irony of his previous work (and of much American poetry), Paquin’s poems in The Violence contain a rawness of emotion and clarity of feeling rare among writers of his generation. Where form plays a part, therefore, it is likely to be exploded: Paquin’s page becomes more of a canvas than a neutral vehicle for the work. With this book, he confirms his position among the foremost of younger American poets.

“For anyone at all concerned with the craft, challenges and scope for meaning in modern poetics, Ethan Paquin is a must-read.”—Stuart Kelley, Poetry Review