The Song of the Pendulum

This edition consists of essays by Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996), some of which are lectures delivered by the great poet at various universities in the USA and Europe as part of special courses in the history of literature. Readers will encounter such foreign classics as Konstantinos Kavafis, Robert Frost, Rainer Maria Rilke, Wystan Hugh Auden, and others. Many of these masters of words had, according to Brodsky's own admission, a decisive "ethical influence" on him. These texts were written in English and presented in translations; some were completed during the author's lifetime and with his personal involvement.