In this Book
- Captive Voices: New and Selected Poems, 1960-2008
- Book
- 2009
- Published by: Louisiana State University Press
- Series: Southern Messenger Poets
Over nearly fifty years, Eleanor Ross Taylor has established herself as one of the foremost southern poets of her generation. Captive Voices gathers selections from Taylor's five previous books along with a generous helping of new poems. Scintillating, unusual, passionate, and profound, the poems range from contemporary pieces about a bag lady on a bus, to historical pieces about settlers held hostage and a wartime nurse caring for British wounded, to intensely personal poems about her dislike for her grandmother and worries about her son. The title poem -- a real tour de force -- explores the notion of captivity on several levels as it speaks to the suffering we all endure, some of which is of our own making. Decidedly regional yet determinedly universal, the poems in this remarkable volume, along with a foreword by Ellen Bryant Voigt, attest to the singular talent of a woman justly described as "a poet of genius."
Table of Contents
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- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. i-iv
- From Wilderness of Ladies (1960)
- Buck Duke and Mamma
- pp. 3-4
- Goodbye Family
- pp. 10-11
- The Chain Gang Guard
- p. 12
- Woman as Artist
- pp. 14-15
- Motherhood, 1880
- p. 18
- Family Bible
- pp. 19-23
- From Welcome Eumenides (1972)
- After Twenty Years
- pp. 27-28
- Welcome Eumenides
- pp. 29-35
- To a Young Writer
- p. 36
- Courtesy Call, 1967
- p. 38
- From New and Selected Poems (1983)
- The Painted Bridge
- pp. 43-44
- The Going Away of Young People
- pp. 45-46
- When Robins Return
- p. 50
- To Future Eleanors
- pp. 53-54
- The Ribbon to Norwood
- pp. 56-63
- In Case of Danger
- pp. 64-65
- Rachel Plummer’s Dream
- pp. 66-68
- In the Bitter Roots
- pp. 69-70
- From Days Going/Days Coming Back (1991)
- At the Altar
- pp. 73-74
- Short Foray
- pp. 75-76
- Harvest, 1925
- pp. 77-78
- Captive Voices
- pp. 79-82
- Where Somebody Died
- p. 83
- Maternity Ward
- p. 84
- Dry Nights
- pp. 85-86
- Pain in the House
- pp. 92-93
- From Late Leisure (1999)
- Diary Entry, March 24
- p. 100
- Overgrown Path
- p. 101
- Completing the Pilgrimage
- pp. 102-103
- The Lighthouse Keeper
- p. 105
- The Accidental Prisoner
- pp. 107-108
- These Gifts
- pp. 112-113
- Always Reclusive
- p. 115
- Kitchen Fable
- p. 119
- Late Leisure
- pp. 120-121
- New Poems (1999–2008)
- When to Stop
- p. 125
- Three Days in Flower
- p. 126
- Transience
- p. 127
- How to Live in a Trap
- p. 133
- Disappearing Act
- p. 135
- I See Nobody
- p. 136
- Born Alpha
- p. 139
- Imago Mundi
- pp. 140-142
- Against the Kitchen Wall
- p. 143
- Homesick in Paradise
- p. 144
- Wrapping Things Up
- p. 146
- Payment Past Due
- p. 148
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