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More copies of this ISBNThe Commandrine and Other Poemsby Joyelle Mcsweeney
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:The brilliance of Joyelle McSweeney's poems is a given; what remains delightfully open to negotiation are its methodologies and its mien. Is she an earnest relator, using wit and gesture to tell the story faster? Or does she take the piss of her subjects, using perfected skills of mimicry and divination to exploit, spot on, their errant humanities? In her second book McSweeney finds her subjects in the long form; "The Commandrine" is a verse-play that in nine scenes tells the story of sailors Zest, Coast, Ivory, and Irish, and their watery run-in with the Devil. "The Cockatoos Morose" stirs Eliotic grandeur with Stevensian absurdity for a cocktail of delirious observation and rigorous leaps of the sort McSweeney is certain to become famous for. "Crusade-dream flips like a standard. The standard / narrows to a point. And points. / Then it dips like a fern."
Review:"A 'commandrine' is the female captain of a ship, and in the long verse play that gives this sophomore book its title, our leader attempts to guide four unruly sailors who frequently converse with the devil. 'Shall I exercise my command?' asks the commandrine, making it clear that this poem, and the rest of this nervy collection, has that most fundamental question of art making at stake: What constitutes the authority of the artist? McSweeney offers no real answer to this ancient unanswerable ('Don't you know/ the riddle?' asks the poet. 'I am the world I cannot see'), but raises the question in a manner as convincing as it is playful. And as in life, art making blends with other forms of union and reproduction (the first poem ends with the line, 'Ent'ring our marriage ride'; the last is titled 'The Born Fetus'), and with renewal: 'Toothbrush into a yogurt cup, Recyclamente! I am so/ adamant. The siren with a catch in its cry starts over.'" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Synopsis:A verse-play that tells the story of sailors Zest, Coast, Ivory, Irish, and their run-in with the Devil. Synopsis:The brilliance of Joyelle McSweeney's poems is a given; what remains delightfully open to negotiation are its methodologies and its mien. In her second book McSweeney finds her subjects in the long form; The Commandrine is a verse-play that in nine scenes tells the story of sailors Zest, Coast, Ivory, and Irish, and their run-in with the Devil. Synopsis:Poetry. "Joyelle McSweeney's THE COMMANDRINE AND OTHER POEMS is a necessary series of interrogations. This verse play and poems question what it means to endure knowledge in a global economy. With Yeatsian breadth,McSweeney insists not on anarchy but on an Odyssean journey: beyond the sirens, home. This inventive lassoing-in of reality as we are presently experiencing it leaves no one 'clean' or in the clear"--Claudia Rankine. About the AuthorJoyelle McSweeney earned her BA from Harvard and holds an MPhil in English Studies from Oxford University, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar. She received her MFA from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. Brief reviews of hers have appeared in The Boston Review. She is a Professor in the Creative Writing Department at Notre Dame University. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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