In this Book
- The Life and Death of Poetry: Poems
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: Louisiana State University Press
Winner of the 2013 L. E. Phillabaum Poetry Award
In her ninth collection of poetry, Kelly Cherry explores the domain of language. Clear and accessible, the poems in The Life and Death of Poetry examine the intricacies and limitations of communication and its ability to help us transcend our world and lives.
The poet begins with silence and animal sound before taking on literature, public discourse, and the particular art of poetry. The sequence "Welsh Table Talk" considers the unsaid, or unsayable, as a man, his daughter, and his daughter's friend sojourn on Bardsey Island in Wales with the father's female companion. The innocence and playful chatter of the children throw into sharp relief a desolate landscape and failed communication between the adults.
In the book's final section, Cherry considers translation, great art's grand sublimity, and the relation of poetry -- the divine tongue -- to the everyday world. Witty, poignant, wise, and joyous, The Life and Death of Poetry offers a masterful new collection from an accomplished poet.
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. 2-9
- Learning the Language
- Which Is a Verb
- p. 3
- Fields with Shrew
- pp. 5-6
- The Loveknot
- p. 9
- Night Vowels
- p. 10
- The First Word
- p. 11
- Learning the Language
- pp. 12-13
- Against Aphasia
- pp. 17-18
- Chekhov in Yalta
- p. 24
- “Lovelily”
- p. 25
- Poetic Justice
- pp. 26-27
- Ars Poetica
- p. 28
- Underwriting the Words
- pp. 29-30
- A Voice Survives
- pp. 31-32
- Welsh Table Talk
- Welsh Song
- p. 35
- On Bardsey Island
- p. 36
- The Mad Friar
- p. 38
- The Sheep-Fly
- p. 39
- Welsh Table Talk
- p. 41
- Line Fishing
- p. 42
- The Conversation
- p. 43
- Dream Daughter
- pp. 44-45
- A Woman in Wales
- p. 47
- The Spring
- p. 48
- The Manx Shearwater
- p. 51
- The Last Night
- p. 52
- Learning to Live with Stone
- pp. 53-54
- What the Poet Wishes to Say
- On Translation
- pp. 57-61
- What the Poet Wishes to Say
- pp. 62-65
- The Life and Death of Poetry
- pp. 66-70