In this Book

buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary

A remarkable sequence of sonnets that reflect contemporary daily life in New York City

Scaffolding is a sequence of eighty-two sonnets written over the course of a year, dated and arranged in roughly chronological order, and vividly reflecting life in New York City. In this, her third book of poetry, Eléna Rivera uses the English sonnet as a scaffold to explore daily events, observations, conversations, thoughts, words, and memories—and to reflect on the work of earlier poets and the relationship between life and literature.

Guided by formal and syllabic constraints, the poems become in part an exploration of how form affects content and how other poets have approached the sonnet. The poems, which are very attentive to rhythm and sound, are often in conversation with historical, philosophical, artistic, and literary sources. But at the same time they engage directly with the present moment. Like the construction scaffolding that year after year goes up around buildings all over New York, these poems build on one another and change the way we see what was there before.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Title, Copyright, Epigraph
  2. pp. i-iv
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-xii
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. July 14th From 80 La Salle
  2. p. 1
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. July 30th
  2. p. 2
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. July 31st Shell-Words
  2. p. 3
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 5th
  2. p. 4
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 8th For Thomas Hardy (Revised June 5th)
  2. p. 5
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 9th
  2. p. 6
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Started Aug. 11th (Finished Feb. 20th)
  2. p. 7
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 12th With Wordsworth
  2. p. 8
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 13th
  2. p. 9
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 14th
  2. p. 10
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 15th For William Shakespeare
  2. p. 11
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 16th
  2. p. 12
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 18th (Version 2)
  2. p. 13
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 19th
  2. p. 14
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 20th
  2. p. 15
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 21st
  2. p. 16
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 22nd
  2. p. 17
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 23rd For Coleridge
  2. p. 18
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 26th For Inger Christensen
  2. p. 19
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 27th
  2. p. 20
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 28th
  2. p. 21
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 29th
  2. p. 22
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 31st
  2. p. 23
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 1st
  2. p. 24
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 5th
  2. p. 25
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 9th The Translation
  2. p. 26
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 10th None Donne Sonnet
  2. p. 27
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 11th Morning Sonnet
  2. p. 28
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 12th For George Herbert
  2. p. 29
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 15th (Revised July 19th, Finished Jan. 22nd)
  2. p. 30
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 17th (Finished July 20th)
  2. p. 31
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 18th For Percy Bysshe Shelley
  2. p. 32
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 19th Poem for Alice 1
  2. p. 33
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 20th Poem for Alice 2 (Revised n.d.)
  2. p. 34
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 22nd
  2. p. 35
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 24th
  2. p. 36
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 25th
  2. p. 37
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 29th
  2. p. 38
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 30th
  2. p. 39
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 1st
  2. p. 40
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 2nd
  2. p. 41
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 3rd (Version 1)
  2. p. 42
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 3rd (Version 2, Revised n.d.)
  2. p. 43
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 7th “Confess that it is so”
  2. p. 44
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 8th (Revised July 8th)
  2. p. 45
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 9th (Finished July 24th)
  2. p. 46
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 10th [When a sonnet had too many words]
  2. p. 47
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 13th And you feel it in the body
  2. p. 48
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 14th
  2. p. 49
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 15th
  2. p. 50
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 20th
  2. p. 51
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 21st (Version 1)
  2. p. 52
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 21st (Version 2)
  2. p. 53
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 22nd
  2. p. 54
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 24th
  2. p. 55
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 27th (Revised Jan. 28th)
  2. p. 56
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 29th
  2. p. 57
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 30th (Revised March 20th)
  2. p. 58
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 31st (Version 1)
  2. p. 59
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 31st (Version 2)
  2. p. 60
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Nov. 4th
  2. p. 61
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Nov. 5th Election Sonnet
  2. p. 62
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Nov. 10th
  2. p. 63
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Nov. 19th (Revised March 26th)
  2. p. 64
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Nov. 24th (Finished Aug. 3rd)
  2. p. 65
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Nov. 27th
  2. p. 66
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Dec. 4th (Revised n.d.)
  2. p. 67
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Dec. 10th After Thomas Wyatt (Revised Feb. 1st)
  2. p. 68
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Dec. 11th (Revised n.d.)
  2. p. 69
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Dec. 22nd
  2. p. 70
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Jan. 18th The Inauguration
  2. p. 71
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Feb. 9th For Spenser (Version 1)
  2. p. 72
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Feb. 11th For Spenser (Version 2, Revised n.d.)
  2. p. 73
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. March 10th (Finished Aug. 7th, A Year Later)
  2. p. 74
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Oct. 23rd March 23rd
  2. p. 75
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Sept. 16th April 7th For Edmund Spenser (Version 3)
  2. p. 76
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. April 10th (Revised n.d.)
  2. p. 77
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. April 13th After Sophocles
  2. p. 78
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Aug. 4th April 15th
  2. p. 79
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. April 16th Still Life
  2. p. 80
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. July 17th April 23rd
  2. pp. 81-82
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. 83-86
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
Back To Top