The Joyous Science: Selected Poems of Maxim Amelin

The Joyous Science offers a comprehensive introduction to Maxim Amelin. The poems span Amelins long career and cover his many thematic concerns. A loving collector of neologisms and a devoted student of Revolutionary word-smithing ( la Mayakovsky), Amelin keeps his poetry in suspension through a tension of opposites. He writes of bodily pleasures while musing on the bodys resurrection. He is critical of Russia but loves its language. Riddles, odes, and elegies appear alongside a long poem, The Joyous Science. This 20-page mock epic chronicles the exploitsboth real and imaginedof Jacob Bruce, an astronomer, alchemist, and military strategist to Peter the Great. Amelin is a unique force in contemporary Russian poetry.