If you are looking for a warm diversion in the midst of the latest blast of bone-chilling weather to sweep through the Upper Valley, a reading by the poet Lucie Brock-Broido is sure to warm the soul this Thursday evening.
The Department of English and the Ralph Samuel Poetry Fund present a reading by the author of "The Master Letters" and "A Hunger."
The metaphysical nature of her poems have been compared to other female poets such as Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, and Elizabeth Bishop. Book reviewer Bonnie Costello has dubbed Lucie Brock-Broido a "gothic metaphysician who confronts the perils of the imagination, the demonic aspect of the spirit that can destroy the self and others."
Brock-Broido's poetry finds its strength in the domestic realm she uncovers. She does not attempt to locate her work in a removed, ethereal environment, but that of a woman living amidst the chaotic events of this earth.
In a poem called 'Queen Recluse' the narrator says, "With no promise of an afterlife, then I will comb the moors in rainy April when the heathers are discolored by the rusts of a restless consumptive season, the stone walls of the parsonage ablaze with little germs & breathe my brother's madness."
But Brock-Broido's work is not limited to the confessional, contemplative mode that so many poets are unable to move beyond. Her subject matter encompasses archaeology, evolution, incarnation, and current news events. She has written on historical figures like child-King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I, as well as contemporary miracles like Jessica McClure, the Texan infant who was trapped in a well for three days.
She does not claim to speak for her broad list of characters, but she used their personas and experiences to serve as outlines for her own imaginative interpretations of their lives. Her words form an invigorating, new approach to old stories.
Brock-Broido has proven herself to be a marvelous listener, recorder, and interpreter of the world. Her poems project a voice that is not self-indulgent or self-conscious, but a voice that speaks for a mass of characters who may otherwise remain silent.
Her poems have appeared in esteemed periodicals such as "The New Yorker," "Harper's Bazaar" and "The New Republic," and have been reviewed in academic publications like "Partisan Review," "Michigan Quarterly Review" and "The American Poetry Review."
Brock-Broido's reading will take place in the Wren Room, Sanborn Library this Thursday evening at 8:00 p.m. A reception will follow the reading.
