What if poetry books were illustrated in the same way as altered books? Would we read differently? Are words strengthened or weakened by the introduction of image?
In last week's article we discussed the similarities between Kristine and Joyce Atkinson's Journal: The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Amy Zoe Mason and contemporary poetry. (1) Photos and other media have long been a staple inspiration for poetry.
Novels-in-verse especially embody the spirit of a scrapbook or journal, and poems are often grouped in the same way photos are arranged in an album. Aside from traditional poems, letters, diary pages, telegrams, and other devices are readily used to propel poetic narratives.
Tamsen Donner: A Woman's Journey, Ruth Whitman's lyric novel based on the disastrous Donner Party 1846 crossing of the Sierras, often uses letters and journal entries to move the story along. Here, in the poem, "September 1, 1846, at the edge of the Salt Desert" Tamsen Donner finds bits of a letter. Almost destroyed, it remains a chilling warning left to her party by someone who has gone on before:
We find scraps of paper with bits of handwriting
scattered on the ground at the foot of a post. Perhaps
it is a message for us.
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Spread on my lap where I
have gathered blossoms, held
my babies, I hold this
future:
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hard drive...two
days and nights
...no water (2)
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In another example, Davis McComb's poem "April fifth, Nineteen Hundred Eighty Three" is clearly a journal entry. It begins:
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Brother came home in flood time, sudden
as the first heave of spring. That week
the river grew restless in its banks, tumbling
out chicken wire and empty bottles in its gorge.
Our house, too, strained, with one more in its tiny rooms (3)
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We have already discussed in a previous article how Les Murray's Fredy Neptune, a 255 page iambic hexameter poem, begins with the main character looks through his box of old photos. Each stanza explores one image. Fredy lets the photographs of his youth spur his memory and his story. (4)
The strength of these pieces lies in the emotional impact of the words used. How differently would the poetry feel if illustrations of the objects described were included? Many argue that the strength of the words would be diminished by the introduction of visuals. Can poetry and illustration work together? What do you think?
In the article to follow we will discuss controversial poet Janet Holmes' The Green Tuxedo. Holmes does not describe use photos and other media in her poems; instead she uses the media as the poems themselves.(5) We will explore her technique next time.
- Atkinson, Kristine, Atkinson, Joyce. Journal: The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Amy Zoe Mason. Simon and Schuster: New York. 2006.
- Whitman, Ruth. Tamsen Donner: A Woman's Journey. Alice James Books: Farmington. 1977. 48.
- McCombs, Davis. Ultima Thule.Yale series of younger poets, v.94. Yale University Press. 2000.
- Murray, Les. Fredy Neptune: A Novel in Verse. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 1999.
- Holmes, Janet. The Green Tuxedo. Notre Dame: The University of Notre Dame Press. 1999.
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For more information related to image in poetry, please visit the articles on Sugartown.
For an article on poetry with image, please investigate Journal: The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Amy Zoe Mason.
