The World of the Ten Thousand Things

A decade of poetry collections by the National Book Award– and Pulitzer Prize–winning poet laureate gathered in one volume.

“[The World of the Ten Thousand Things is] a single poetic sequence worthy of comparison with such extended works as “The Bridge” by Hart Crane, “The Far Field” by Theodore Roethke, and “Dream Songs” by John Berryman. . . . [Wright is] a poet of great purity and originality.” ―Richard Tillinghast, The New York Times Book Review

The World of Ten Thousand Things gathers The Southern Cross (1981), The Other Side of the River (1984), Zone Journals (1988), and a new group of poems, “Xionia,” into one volume, allowing us to see Wright's work of the past decade as, in essence, one long poem, a meditation on self, history, and the metaphysical that is among the most ambitious and resonant creations in contemporary American poetry.

“There is no poet of his generation whose career has unfolded with such genuine authority as Charles Wright’s, or whom I read with more astonishment and gratitude. There is no book published this year I could recommend more highly.” ―J.D. McClatchy, Poetry