Anne Carson

Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry. New Books read.

How to write specific forms:
Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka.
Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát.
Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poets: Adam Zagajewski. Aleda Shirley. Anne Carson.
The Beowulf Poet. Billy Collins. Billy Collins exercise.
Snorri's Edda. Carl Dennis. Charles Atkinson. Chase Twichell. Corey Marks.
François Villon Franz Wright. Galway Kinnell. Gary Young. The Gawain Poet. Jack Gilbert.
Jane Hirshfield. Jean Vengua. J. Zimmerman. J. Zimmerman (haiku). J. Zimmerman (tanka).
Jorie Graham. Karen Braucher. Karl Shapiro. Kay Ryan.
Laureate Poets: Britain; USA.
Len Anderson. Les Murray. Li-Young Lee. Linda Pastan. Louise Glück.
Nordic Skalds. Pulitzer Poetry Prize (U.S.A). Richard Hugo. Robert Bly.
Sappho. Sara Teasdale. Shiki (haiku). Snorri's Edda. Stephen Dunn.
Ted Kooser. W.S. Merwin.

Anne Carson featured in:
Best American Poetry: 2004 (guest editor Lyn Hejinian) with "Gnosticism", a 4-page poem in 6 sections.
Best American Poetry: 2002 (guest editor Robert Creeley) with "Opposed Glimpse of Alice James, Garth James, Henry James, Robertson James, and William James".
Best American Poetry: 2001 (guest editor Robert Hass) with "Longing: A Documentary".
Best American Poetry: 1998 (guest editor John Hollander) with "TV Men: Antigone (Scripts 1 and 2)".
Best American Poetry: 1990 (guest editor Jorie Graham) with [Best poem in the collection:] "The Life of Towns".

Books:

Poems-plus:
2005: Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera.
2001: The Beauty of the Husband.
1998: Autobiography of Red: a Novel in Verse.
1995: Glass, Irony, and God.

Translations:
2002: If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho.

Time line. Links and Books.

General attributes of books of poems by Anne Carson

Dense with classicist references and allusions.
Some game-playing and invention of myth.
One of our most interesting explorers of 'the line' in poetry.

Poetry of Anne Carson.
Books are shown alphabetically. Time line is at the end.

Autobiography of Red: a Novel in Verse (1998)

Book log for Carson's Autobiography of Red: a Novel in Verse.

Studied in Encountering Antiquity.

Striking movement of a legend into the modern world. Other writers have compared Anne Carson favorably to Louise Glück. Anne Carson has a more interesting voice, in this book, compared with anything of Gluck's.

Her 1st novel in verse.
An intense story of a young, red, winged boy and man called Geryon, the name of a 'monster' defeated by Herakles.
Dedication: FOR WILL.
Five prefatory sections:
- "Red Meat: What Difference did Stesichoros Make?"
- "Red Meat: Fragments of Stesichoros" 16 fragments, set in a world that seems at once archaic and at the same time the modern world of taxis and hot plates and glass-bottomed boats.
- "Appendix A: Testimonia on the question of Stesichoros' blinding by Helen"
- "Appendix B: A palindrome"
- "Appendix C: Clearing up the question of Stesichoros' blinding by Helen"
The main section is:
- "Autobiography of Red: a Romance"
- Prefaced with Emily Dickinson's poem 1748: in the circumstances, one is surprised to discover that this poem was written by Dickinson.
- Each poem is double-spaced, which makes it easier to read, regardless of whether each section is a single stanza (presumably) or each line is a single stanza.
A closing section, which is a faux "Interview" with Stesichoros.
Sample statistics:
- 47 poems in 124 pages (thus almost 3 pages per poem on average).

The Beauty of the Husband (2001)

Book log for Carson's The Beauty of the Husband.

Subtitled 'a fictional essay in 29 tangos'.
Makes me wonder if the tango is a dance of seduction or a dance of revenge. This book feels like a revenge job.
Nothing special to make it worth rereading.
Reports events in the breakdown of a marriage, in a jokey-complaining way. Although called 'fictional' may be autobiographical in part.
No dedication.
Acknowledges no first publications.

A few interesting though postured lines, like:

	
    [p.106]
	"Dawn was pushing the sky up like a venetian blind."
	
    [p.133]
	"I miss you desperately love you always am
	sorry for everything. It all
	happened so fast."

Winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, perhaps in part because of its heavy erudition and use of quotations.
Sample statistics:
- 30 poems (29 'tangos' and a final poem) in 71 pages (interleaved with 70 pages that are either blank or that quote some non-existent works of John Keats); as a result there are about 2.4 pages per poem on average.
- Each poems is, in layout and in effect, its own section.
- Punctuation from the first 10 poems shows her comparable to Louise Glück in sprinkling punctuation through her poems, with a little more use of italics and parentheses than Louise Glück, somewhat less used of the colon, and little use of the semicolon compared with Louise Glück.
  - italics in 8 (80%)
  - parentheses in 8 (80%)
  - dash in 7 (70%)
  - question mark in 7 (70%)
  - colon in 4 (40%)
  - exclamation mark in 2 (20%)
  - square brackets in 2 (20%)
  - lacuna in 1 (10%)
  - semicolon in 0
- 5 (50%) of the first 10 poems address 'you'.

Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera (2005)

Seems rather posturing. A book of sometimes-interesting poems, with most of the space being filled by heavily footnoted essays and uninteresting opera libretto in search of a composer. Don't bother.

Glass, Irony, and God (1995)

The first 118 pages five multi-part and multi-reality poems in short stanza (mostly 3 lines; often 2 or 4 lines) blending (and sometimes blenderizing) past and present. The closing 24 pages are her essay "The Gender of Sound", with 70 footnotes and 3 pages of bibliography. She also painted her own cover.

Translations by Anne Carson.
Books are shown alphabetically by title. Time line is at the end.

If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (2002)

See review on the Sappho page for
If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho
translated by Anne Carson.
Studied in Encountering Antiquity.

Time Line.

1950.

Born in Toronto, Canada.

1990

A poem included in the Best American Poetry: 1990.

1992

Published Goddesses And Wise Women.

1995

Published Glass, Irony, and God.

1998

Published her 1st novel in verse: Autobiography of Red: a Novel in Verse.
Republished Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay.
A poem included in the Best American Poetry: 1998.

1999

Published her Economy of the Unlost.

2000

Published Men in the Off Hours.

2001

Published The Beauty of the Husband.
A poem included in the Best American Poetry: 2001.

2002

Translation of the fragments of Sappho: If Not Winter. Carson teaches ancient Greek for a living.
A poem included in the Best American Poetry: 2002.

2004

A poem included in the Best American Poetry: 2004.

2005

Published Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera.

2013

Published Red Doc>, a 'sequel' to the clearer Autobiography of Red.

Links and Books.

Links and Books.

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