I Wish I Had a Heart Like Yours, Walt Whitman

Jude Nutter

Publication Year: 2009

In "Return of the Heroes," Walt Whitman refers to the casualties of the American Civil War: "the dead to me mar not. . . . / they fit very well in the landscape under the trees and grass. . . ." In her new poetry collection, Jude Nutter challenges Whitman's statement by exploring her own responses to war and conflict and, in a voice by turns rueful, dolorous, and imagistic, reveals why she cannot agree. Nutter, who was born in England and grew up in Germany, has a visceral sense of history as a constant, violent companion. Drawing on a range of locales and historical moments—among them Rwanda, Sarajevo, Nagasaki, and both world wars—she replays the confrontation of personal history colliding with history as a social, political, and cultural force. In many of the poems, this confrontation is understood through the shift from childhood innocence and magical thinking to adult awareness and guilt. Nutter responds to Whitman from another perspective as well. It was Whitman who wrote that he could live with animals because, among other things, they are placid, self-contained, and guiltless. As counterpoint, Nutter weaves a series of animal poems—a kind of personal bestiary—throughout the collection that reveals the tragedy and violence also inherent in the lives of animals. Here, as in much of Nutter's previous work, the boundaries between the animal and human worlds are permeable; the urgent voice of the poet insists we recognize that "Even from a distance, suffering / is suffering." Here is both acknowledgment and challenge: distance may be measured in terms of time, culture, or place, or it may be caused by the gap between animals and humans, but it is our responsibility to speak against atrocity and bloodshed, however voiceless we may feel.

Published by: University of Notre Dame Press

Contents
Search Inside This Book
Book Details

pdf icon Download PDF (40.2 KB)
pp. ix-x

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

pdf icon Download PDF (37.8 KB)
pp. 12-15

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following journals in which these poems, or earlier versions of them, first appeared: Chautauqua Literary Journal: “Growing up in Bergen-Belsen: Sleeping with Anne Frank,” “Espenbaum in Bergen-Belsen, May 2007,” “Road Kill” Great River Review: “In the World Museum” ...

E-ISBN-13: 9780268087586
E-ISBN-10: 026808758X
Print-ISBN-13: 9780268036638
Print-ISBN-10: 0268036632

Page Count: 120
Publication Year: 2009

I Wish I Had a Heart Like Yours, Walt Whitman

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

LAMB

THE HELMET

IN THE WORLD MUSEUM

UNTITLED

GROWING UP IN BERGEN-BELSEN

HERON

FOR THOSE HELD CAPTIVE DECADES IN DARKNESS

GROWING UP IN BERGEN-BELSEN: THE CHRYSALIS

THE CALVES

TRIPTYCH FOR MY FATHER

VIA NEGATIVA

GOATS

SELLING HONEY ON THE ROAD TO SARAJEVO

ESPENBAUM IN BERGEN-BELSEN, MAY 2007

FRAGMENTS

RAVEN

TRIPTYCH WITH BIRDS

VISITING UNCLE PETERS GRAVE

GROWING UP IN BERGEN-BELSEN: THE FIRST KISS

THE LOVER

THE CENTREFOLD

INFIDELITY

HOW TO USE A FIELD GUIDE

DOWNY WOODPECKER

DINNER IN THE SUBURBS

AFTER WATCHING TELEVISION I STEP OUTSIDE

FOUR GIRLS

SKYLARKS

LOOKING AT PHOTOGRAPHS, IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDON

THE FIRST SUNDAY OF HUNTING SEASON

FROM THE MOUTH TO THE SOURCE

THE MAP

LOVE AND THE HANGMAN IN CROATIA

ON THE TRAIN TO LENINGRAD WITH OSIP MANDELSTAM

CAROLINA GRASSHOPPERS

THE GOOD DOCTOR IN NAGASAKI

GROWING UP IN BERGEN-BELSEN: SLEEPING WITH ANNE FRANK

THE INSECT COLLECTOR'S DEMISE

ROAD KILL

ROPES

WOLVES

NOTES

Research Areas

Recommend

Related Content

Welcome to Project MUSE

Connect with Project MUSE

Cover 1

Cover 2

Cover 3