Summoning Shades: Poems - Couverture souple

Smith, R. T.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0881467006 ISBN 13 : 9780881467000

Editeur : Mercer University Press, 2019

Synopsis

Homer sends the hero of "The Odyssey" to interview the dead in order to discover his destiny. The poems in this book pursue a similar mission, bringing to life in monologues and narratives figures from history and recollection, all rendered with careful attention to the idiom, customs, emotions, and ironies of their time and region. The earlier, nineteenth century figures include Mary Lincoln, Ambrose Bierce, Meriwether Lewis, Federal veterans posing as casualties for photographers, women in a Winslow Homer painting, and Audubon's assistant Joseph mason. All are rescued from the shadows long enough to reveal their natures and often-gothic moments of crisis. The more modern figures includes Lizzie Borden, Patsy Cline, and a gallery of characters summoned from smalltown Southern sources - a roguish uncle, a dishonest investigator, a furious neighbor, a zealous and dangerous preacher. The collection concludes with the narrator attempting to speak with his dementia-stricken mother and, in her, seeing the mother of Odysseus, "an empty flitting shade" breaking her son's heart as her image eludes his attempts to embrace her. Working from historical sources, a broad empathy, and a mischievous imagination, the author is able to find wry dark humor and a little succor in the presence of Civil War survivors, rogue musicians, and adventurers. Whether the subjects are major players in the story of America or squabbling Appalachian farmers, the author keeps hoping their domain will be redeemed from violence. Even damaged Mary Lincoln, incarcerated in an asylum, has a magical blue bird to guide her toward escape and revenge, and dulcimers played in familial harmony make the mountains ring.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

R. T. Smith is the author of over a dozen collections of poetry, most recently The Red Wolf and In the Night Orchard. Formerly writer-in-residence at Washington and Lee University, he was editor of Shenandoah for twenty-three years. Twice included in The Best American Poetry, Smith lives on Timber Ridge in Rockbridge County, Virginia.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Mercer University Press
• Date d'édition: 2019
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0881467006
• ISBN 13: 9780881467000
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 110
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Buchpark GmbH; https://www.buchpark.de; ; Krügerweg 1; Trebbin; Brandenburg; 14959; Allemagne