For a few tense days, the aisles of Powells.com were silent. No one spoke; no one whispered; no one dared interrupt the fearsome competition that was unfolding in Round Two of
Poetry Madness. Sure, it was easy to be distracted by the swagger of Neruda and Rilke. With their intentions clearly aimed at a Round Three matchup, the duo left their Round Two contenders in the dust.
In almost all of the other matchups, while each of the poets showed flashes of brilliance, none ever hit their stride. But toward the end of Round Three, it became clear that this round would be dominated by the ladies. Anne Carson, Sylvia Plath, Rita Dove, Mary Oliver, Mary Szybist, Tess Gallagher, Anna Akhmatova, and Emily Dickinson all advanced in a series of tough wins. Breathless, her white gown slightly translucent with sweat, Dickinson wrestled Walt Whitman to the ground and into a Damascus head-leglock. When the final bell rang, she raised her fists in the air and screamed:
I'm "wife" — I've finished that —That other state —
I'm Czar — I'm "Woman" now —
In the end, it was Auden who disappeared in the dead of winter and Yeats who would be moving on to Round Three, where he'll attempt to tread not-so-softly on Elizabeth Bishop's dreams of winning.
What's next in Round Three? Tess Gallagher might be hopeful for a showdown At the Owl Woman Saloon, but Baudelaire's secret weapon, The Flowers of Evil, may prove too difficult to overcome.
Will Rilke invoke The Swan, The Panther, or The Gazelle in his next bout? Or will Neruda prove he's not just a lover but a fighter? Will Mary Oliver's hard work make the Dream Work? It's hard to say, but Anna Akhmatova left the crowd with a prediction: You Will Hear Thunder.
Round Two Results:
Living
Mary Oliver – 53.6%
Louise Glück – 46.4%
Anne Carson – 62.9%
Natasha Trethewey – 37.1%
Rita Dove – 64.0%
Tony Hoagland – 36.0%
John Ashbery – 46.3%
Li-Young Lee – 53.7%
Deceased
Emily Dickinson – 51.8%
Walt Whitman – 48.2%
Sylvia Plath – 56.8%
Allen Ginsberg – 43.2%
Elizabeth Bishop – 54.9%
Adrienne Rich – 45.1%
W. B. Yeats – 63.7%
W. H. Auden – 36.3%
Poets in Translation
Anna Akhmatova – 54.5%
Wislawa Szymborska – 45.5%
Czeslaw Milosz – 48.4%
Charles Baudelaire – 51.6%
Rainer Maria Rilke – 88.8%
Constantine P. Cavafy – 11.2%
Hafez – 15.1%
Pablo Neruda – 84.9%
Pacific Northwest
Matthew Dickman – 55.6%
Crystal Williams – 44.4%
Tess Gallagher – 64.0%
Carolyn Kizer – 36.0%
Gary Snyder – 36.6%
Theodore Roethke – 63.4%
Floyd Skloot – 45.2%
Mary Szybist – 54.8%