Voices: Poetry and Art from Around the World

by Barbara Brenner

An international collection of poetry illustrates the places and scenes of each poet's home with selected paintings, folk art, historical artifacts, and evocative photographs. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0792270711
• ISBN13: 9780792270713
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: National Geographic Society
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 9.5" x 11.2"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Faraway becomes Familiar

"I was overwhelmed by the power, beauty, and variety of what I found." -Barbara Brenner when working on this book. This book presents poetry and art from six continents: North America: Voices from glaciers, city streets, green valleys... South America: Voices from cloud forest, jungle, deserts Europe: Voices from heath and moor, fjords, sun-kissed fields of flowers Africa: Voices from vast deserts, great rivers, rugged hills and endless skies Asia: Voices from ragged mountains, wave-splashed coasts, cherry-blossomed gardens Australia/Oceania: Voices from the outback, rocks, coral reefs, strings of islands... These poems celebrate paintings, fold art, historical artifacts and photographs that each evoke the flavor of each continent. This is a book about the human family and how each culture speaks to us all in the universal language of art and poetry. I especially loved "The Pen" "Take a pen in your uncertain fingers. Trust, and be assured That the whole world is a sky-blue butterfly And words are the nets to capture it." You will also find a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Lyrics from Ancient Arabia and a Chinese Nursery Rhyme. I wish I was a child again and could sit around in a tree house reading poetry. The art was as fascinating as the poems. ~The Rebecca Review

An impressive multicultural anthology

"Voices: Poetry and Art from Around the World," selected by Barbara Brenner, is an anthology of literature and visual art from many cultures. The book is divided up into 6 sections: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia/Oceania.Some of the texts included are an Inuit chant, a traditional Navajo song, a Quechua lament, a Chinese nursery rhyme, and a Scottish ballad. Specific authors whose poetry is represented include Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, Victor Hernandez Cruz, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Dennis Brutus.The full-color visual art includes paintings, sculptures, ceramic figurines, and various folk crafts: a Mande hunter's shirt from West Africa, a Turkish rug, etc. Other pieces of art pictured include a Sumerian sculpture dated between 2750 and 2600 BCE, and Pablo Picasso's 1921 painting "Three Musicians."This is a truly remarkable collection, and makes a great multicultural educational resource.