Tennessee Williams: "In the Winter of Cities " (A Review)

Tennessee Williams:
“In the Winter of Cities” (A Review)


I expect when most people think of Tennessee Williams, they think of the plays he wrote, such as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” or “The Glass Menagerie,” or even, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” all great movies, and plays. But he wrote other stories, and one novel, “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone,” among other things. But he also was a poet, and a good one, and in his book “In the Winter of Cities,” 1956, not sure if you can find a copy nowadays, his poetry is worth reading. He has good form, style, and wit; even some insight to share, and a tinge of wisdom. He is quite descriptive, and seems to follow modernism. Being a gay writer, in the 1950s he is kind of sly on how he produces his romances, leads one to believe contrary to what he is, yet he exposes himself a tinge. He has long poems, short poems, poems that make you think as a poem should, and some have effect, in that it can plague you.

There are several good writers from the past (like Tennessee), that wrote poetry first before heading out to bigger things, so they felt, and some were good and some not so good. Faulkner wrote two books of poetry, it really was a mess, I have them both, and he should have simply not published them. Hemingway, published a few small books on poetry, he is next to Ginsberg with his style, or ethics when he writes poetry, it is more of a release for him, therapy you could say. Not good at all. Robert Howard, who wrote many books and stories, was a great poet, and loved the art, but made no money from it so he stuck with his he-man Series.

Some of the great poets today, like Robert Bly, and Donald Hall, I need not say much, they are good, and have been for ages it seems. But Tennessee, fits the unknown poet bill, so if you get a chance to read his poetry, you might be doing yourself a favor.