Marilyn Hacker's Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons is as much fun now as when I oritinally read it in 1989 (I know the dates I originally read things because I write them inside the front cover). I am less forgiving of her use of crude language and her lapses into unintelligible (to me) French than I was at the age of 24, but the idea of writing a book of poetry which chronicles in sonnets a love affair from beginning to end remains deliciously fun. I remember knowing somehow that she decided to write a sonnet a day as she became enamored of a younger woman, and she did so all the way through the anticipation stage, the heady sex stage, and the she-left-me-and-what-do-I-do-now stage. I can't find confirmation that this was her process, but if it was, it shows, in that some of the poems are a bit weak, and they get repetitive: how many sonnets about masturbation does one person really need to read?
On the other hand, what a great way to read sonnets (and the occasional villanelle. I've recently subscribed to the Sonnet-a-Day mailing list, which means a sonnet by Shakespeare shows up in my in-box about twice a week, and they're hard going! Hacker's are not necessarily easier as individual poems, but the narrative that ties them together makes it possible to read them quickly and with some fluency, for the story: imagine that, a book of formal poetry you can read like a novel! I'm still in the masturbation-and-fantasy section of the book, and even though I know they end up in bed, I'm caught up in the anticipation. This book, or one like it without the crudity, adultery, and excessive French, would be perfect for handing to readers who are afraid of poetry, or who think poetry's value lies in it being arid and inaccessible.
Posted by Su Penn at June 18, 2003 08:35 AM | TrackBack