4thace reviewed Essential Muriel Rukeyser by Natasha Trethewey
Review of 'Essential Muriel Rukeyser' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I came to this book not knowing much about the poet, just an idea of the time when she lived but not what currents in American poetry she was associated with. The opy I had contained a short introduction by Natasha Trethewey mentioning the parallels between Rukeyser's time and our own, but did not really set the context, so all I can report on now is the impression each poem gave on its own. Without a chronology, a sense of what she was reading, what the reception to her work was, it was hard to gain a feeling for the nuances which I could tell were present.
Many of the poems comment on events taking place at the time they were composed, including some long pieces about Appalachian miner's labor demands coming from the diagnosis of silicosis in their lungs. I could see a sympathy for the powerless fighting against …
I came to this book not knowing much about the poet, just an idea of the time when she lived but not what currents in American poetry she was associated with. The opy I had contained a short introduction by Natasha Trethewey mentioning the parallels between Rukeyser's time and our own, but did not really set the context, so all I can report on now is the impression each poem gave on its own. Without a chronology, a sense of what she was reading, what the reception to her work was, it was hard to gain a feeling for the nuances which I could tell were present.
Many of the poems comment on events taking place at the time they were composed, including some long pieces about Appalachian miner's labor demands coming from the diagnosis of silicosis in their lungs. I could see a sympathy for the powerless fighting against powerful opponents running through these, whether those adversaries were corporate or ideological. In another of these poems, 'Letters to the Front,' she brings up issues of identity during the second World War. She talks here about the action she feels needs to be taken, not the abstract reasoning behind the fighting. It seems to me that each one has a moral center which isn't too hard to locate. As to theme, other poems describe urban life ('City of Monuments'), reproductive issues ('The Speed of Darkness'), mythic images ('Private Life of the Sphinx,' 'Niobe,' 'Myth,' and 'Waiting for Icarus'), and the speaker's legacy after death ('What They Said') with great conviction. Here and there the language takes flight, but most of the time it is sober, plain-spoken, serious, never confessional. There are short poems and long ones, some of which are self-aware about the act of writing, others which are so down to earth they seem almost prosy.
I feel that this is a good collection to get acquainted with the work of a poet who doesn't get a lot of mention now. Her style and areas of concern are quite different from mine, but I think reading through these poems and working out how they fit in is probably a good exercise for anyone interested in writing.
I received this book in the form of an Advance Reader's Copy through Netgalley so that I could post a review of my impressions.