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A review by das737
Collected Poems: 1974-2004 by Rita Dove
Weirdly, this review runs the risk of me airing my grievances about collected volumes of poetry: there's something about the material value of slim volumes, the experience of finding one that packs the punch of a full novel. This effect seems dulled to me when poems are formatted as they are here, where one poem begins immediately after another ends, instead of on a new page—a sure way to save paper, along with the slightly oversized pages. But this does do something to the experience of reading the poems themselves, something I haven't quite been able to pin down.
That aside, this was a stellar read. The sustained run from Thomas and Beulah through On the Bus with Rosa Parks is really a major accomplishment—seeing her fully wield the power of a poem cycle, which she flirts with in her first two books, and then blow said power of poem cycle up to capture the stories of her family as well as historical moments and intimate memories. That said, I found American Smooth to be bloated, but that could very well be the consequence of encountering it in a collected rather than as its own volume. It's weird to reflect on how the way we encounter literature could alter our perceptions of it, but that's neither here nore there.
Individual ratings:
The Yellow House on the Corner: 3/5
Museum: 4/5
Thomas and Beulah: 4.5/5
Grace Notes: 5/5
Mother Love: 5/5
On the Bus with Rosa Parks: 4.5/5
American Smooth: 3.5/5
That aside, this was a stellar read. The sustained run from Thomas and Beulah through On the Bus with Rosa Parks is really a major accomplishment—seeing her fully wield the power of a poem cycle, which she flirts with in her first two books, and then blow said power of poem cycle up to capture the stories of her family as well as historical moments and intimate memories. That said, I found American Smooth to be bloated, but that could very well be the consequence of encountering it in a collected rather than as its own volume. It's weird to reflect on how the way we encounter literature could alter our perceptions of it, but that's neither here nore there.
Individual ratings:
The Yellow House on the Corner: 3/5
Museum: 4/5
Thomas and Beulah: 4.5/5
Grace Notes: 5/5
Mother Love: 5/5
On the Bus with Rosa Parks: 4.5/5
American Smooth: 3.5/5