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On Order $22.00
New Hardcover
Currently out of stock.
This title in other formats:Native Guard: Poemsby Natasha Trethewey
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Growing up in the Deep South, Natasha Trethewey was never told that in her hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi, black soldiers had played a pivotal role in the Civil War. Off the coast, on Ship Island, stood a fort that had once been a Union prison housing Confederate captives. Protecting the fort was the second regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards — one of the Union's first official black units. Trethewey's new book of poems pays homage to the soldiers who served and whose voices have echoed through her own life. The title poem imagines the life of a former slave stationed at the fort, who is charged with writing letters home for the illiterate or invalid POWs and his fellow soldiers. Just as he becomes the guard of Ship Island's memory, so Trethewey recalls her own childhood as the daughter of a black woman and a white man. Her parents' marriage was still illegal in 1966 Mississippi. The racial legacy of the Civil War echoes through elegiac poems that honor her own mother and the forgotten history of her native South. Native Guard is haunted by the intersection of national and personal experience. Review:"Trethewey (Domestic Work) draws on the life of her deceased mother and on the history of Mississippi, where the poet and her mother's family grew up, to limn a multiracial South and her own multiracial heritage. One poem tries to preserve her mother's memory ('certain the sounds I make/ are enough to call someone home'); the title poem's set of linked sonnets, where the last line of each one becomes the first line of the next, presents black Union soldiers who 'keep/ white men as prisoners — rebel soldiers,/ would-be masters.' A pantoun remembers the night Trethewey's family discovered a burning cross on her lawn; the concluding poem condenses the poet's mixed — and compelling — feelings about 'Mississippi, state that made a crime// of me — mulatto, half-breed, native — / in my native land, this place they'll bury me.'" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"The frontispiece of Natasha Trethewey's 'Native Guard' informs me she was born in Gulfport, Miss., that her mother was black and her father white. Reasonable deduction (assuming the 'I' of the poems is the poet) tells me that, in her formative years, issues pertaining to her biracial heritage were exacerbated by Mississippi's legacy of oppression — its dark, buried history. In a region struggling... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Review:"[Natasha Tretheway's] voice is a rare, beautiful gift to the reader." --William Ferris, Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History, UNC Chapel Hill Review:"Natasha Trethewey serves our profound need for that rare thing—artistically fine Civil War poetry...She is our Native Guard." --David Madden, Louisiana State University, author of Sharpshooter: A Novel of the Civil War Review:"[Natasha Tretheway Review:s] voice is a rare, beautiful gift to the reader." --William Ferris, Joel R. Williamson Review:Eminent Professor of History, UNC Chapel Hill Review:"Elegiac...eloquently told...profoundly moving...Trethewey is clearly a poet to savor." --Maxine Kumin"In a very few years Natasha Trethewey has created a small body of nearly flawless poetry." --Rodney Jones"[Natasha Tretheway"s] voice is a rare, beautiful gift to the reader." --William Ferris, Joel R. WilliamsonEminent Professor of History, UNC Chapel Hill"Natasha Trethewey serves our profound need for that rare thingartistically fine Civil War poetry...She is our Native Guard." --David Madden, Louisiana State University, author of Sharpshooter: A Novel of the Civil War Synopsis:Natasha Trethewey's muscular, luminous poems explore the complex
memory of the American South--history that belongs to all
Americans. The sequence forming the spine of the collection follows
the Native Guards, one of the first black regiments mustered into service
in the Civil War. In Trethewey's hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi, a
plaque honors Confederate POWs, but there is no memorial to these
vanguard Union soldiers. Native Guard is both a pilgrimage and an
elegy, as Trethewey skillfully employs a variety of poetic forms to create
a lyrical monument to these forgotten voices.
Interwoven are poems honoring Trethewey's mother and recalling
her fraught childhood--her parents' interracial marriage was still illegal
in 1966 Mississippi. Native Guard is a haunting, beguiling narrative,
caught in the intersections of public and personal testament. As Rita
Dove proclaimed, "Here is a young poet in full possession of her craft." About the AuthorNatasha Trethewey is the author of two previously published collections, Belloqs Ophelia and Domestic Work. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, she was the recipient of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Grolier Poetry Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. She teaches creative writing at Emory University. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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