Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Louise Gluck

This is the first time I read Louise Gluck and I loved her poems! They were really beautiful. I like how she recounts the Odyssey tale in such simple language. The MAP site contains this quote from Gluck: “It seemed to me that simple language best suited this enterprise; such language, in being generic, is likely to contain the greatest and most dramatic variety of meaning within individual words.” It was also interesting how she varied the line lengths, point of view, etc. and each poem reads differently. “Circe’s Power” and “C’s Grief” are both told from the first person, with Circe as the narrator. All the other poems are third person. I like the last lines of both of the “Circe” poems, in which she reveals her longing for Odysseus. “If I wanted only to hold you/ I could hold you prisoner.” And “…if I am in her head forever/ I am in your life forever.”

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