Paradox Hill

From Appalachia to Lunar Shore

Poems by Louise McNeill, Edited and with an Introduction by A. E. Stringer

Publication Year: 2009

With a new introduction by A.E. Stringer, this reprint of Louise McNeill's classic work remains as vivid as when it was first published. Containing poems from several decades of her career, Paradox Hill: From Appalachia to Lunar Shore is a must-have collection of a beloved poet's heartfelt exploration of her physical and cultural surroundings.

Published by: West Virginia University Press

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Long ago, in a book called Gauley Mountain, I wrote the lore and language of my people, the Appalachian mountaineers. In this book I have written again of “Gauley,” but not of “Gauley” alone. For there has been for me and for all my people that farther journey through the atomic age. ...

Introduction

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pp. 1-11

Louise McNeill’s poems are like fine antiques: elegant, durable, widely appealing, and never outmoded. In fact, like a vase or quilt that we treasure down the generations, they have an aura of necessity, a lasting presence among the newer, shinier pieces we may read in anthologies today. ...

Appalachia

STORIES AT EVENING (A suburban mother tells stories to her son)

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pp. 13-

THE ROADS (Appalachia)

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pp. 14-

BALLAD OF PETE ELLERS

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pp. 15-16

BALLAD OF THE REST HOME

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pp. 17-

BALLAD OF NEW RIVER

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pp. 18-19

The prehistoric New River—called by geologists the “Teays”—once ran from North Carolina, north and west, into Illinois, where it received the tributary waters of the ancient Mississippi and then flowed south to a pre-historic embayment of the Gulf. When the glaciers melted, the western section of the river ...

BALLAD OF MISS SALLY

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pp. 20-21

SCOTCH IRISH

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pp. 22-

MEMORIA

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pp. 23-

HILL DAUGHTER

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pp. 24-

FIRST FLIGHT

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pp. 25-

LIMESTONE CAVERN

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pp. 26-

SEA AND FIRE

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pp. 27-

WALK IN AUTUMN

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pp. 28-

THE ROADS (Rocket-trail)

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pp. 29-

THE SAILOR

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pp. 30-

GARDEN MOMENT

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pp. 31-

ARROW GRASSES BY GREENBRIER RIVER

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pp. 32-

INVOLVED (The Spider)

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pp. 33-

BLIZZARD

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pp. 34-

SNOW ANGELS

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pp. 35-36

THRENODY FOR OLD ORCHARDS

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pp. 37-

FOX AND GEESE

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pp. 38-

OVERHEARD ON A BUS (Miner’s Wife)

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pp. 39-

OVERHEARD ON A BUS (Woman with a cleft palate)

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pp. 40-

MAYAPPLE HILL

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pp. 41-

HEART-WOOD

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pp. 42-

BLUE AND BROWN

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pp. 43-

GRAVITY

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pp. 44-

PASTURE LINE FENCE

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pp. 45-

THE OLD WOMAN

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pp. 46-

OVER THE MOUNTAIN

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pp. 47-49

Scattered Leaves

REFLECTION WITHOUT COLOR

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pp. 51-52

TO THE BOYS IN FRESHMAN HISTORY (Thermopylae—480 B.C.)

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pp. 53-54

THE DREAM

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pp. 55-

POET

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pp. 56-

THE CAVE

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pp. 57-

THE GOLDEN GARDEN OF CUZCO

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pp. 58-

EDEN TREE

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pp. 59-

WARNING

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pp. 60-

TIME—THE PASSAGE OF TIME

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pp. 61-

CONFESSION

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pp. 62-

BOATING SONG

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pp. 63-

THE INVISIBLE LINE

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pp. 64-

AUBADE TO FEAR

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pp. 65-

MINUTIAE

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pp. 66-68

UNDER SEA—THE UNICORN (“Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band to the furrow?”)

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pp. 69-70

To Lunar Shore

If somewhere in the cooling rocks

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pp. 72-

OF SOOTHSAYERS

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pp. 73-

FIRESEED

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pp. 74-77

AFTER THE BLAST

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pp. 78-

LIFE-FORCE (With acknowledgment to John Donne)

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pp. 79-

POTHERBS (Of the edible wild plants my granny taught me.)

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pp. 80-

THE NEW CORBIES

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pp. 81-

PROPHECY FOR THE ATOMIC AGE

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pp. 82-

AFTER HEARING A LECTURE ON MODERN PHYSICS

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pp. 83-84

THE MARTIAN BOX (After reading a Space experiment)

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pp. 85-

THE LOVERS—SPACE AGE

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pp. 86-

EARTH DAY—1970

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pp. 87-

WHITE DWARF STARS

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pp. 88-

SPACE SHIP

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pp. 89-

PROJECTION TO A SPACE OF LOWER ORDER

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pp. 90-

LOST IN ORBIT

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pp. 91-

CHAIN REACTION

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pp. 92-

“LIGHT”

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pp. 93-

QUADRILLE OF THE NAKED CONTOURS

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pp. 94-

EARTH DAY 1971

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pp. 95-96

LETTER WRITTEN AT TWILIGHT

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pp. 97-

About the Authors

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pp. 98-99

McNeill received her early education in rural schools to which she later returned as a teacher. She graduated from Concord College and then received her master’s from Miami University in Ohio. She earned a doctorate from West Virginia University and studied at Middlebury College with the poet Robert Frost, ...

E-ISBN-13: 9781935978176
E-ISBN-10: 1935978179
Print-ISBN-13: 9781933202372
Print-ISBN-10: 1933202378

Page Count: 128
Publication Year: 2009