Customer Reviews

Body My House: May Swenson's Work and Life

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For reasons that defy both logic and instinct the poetry of May Swenson continues to fly under the mainstream publishing radar. This compilation of essays on Swenson, published by Utah State University Press, is the first major book we have on the poet, and is obviously only a jumping-off point. A variety of points of view are given and anyone interested in Swenson's poetry will find fascinating windows on her many-sided genius. Of particular note is Swenson's correspondence with Bishop, eeirly similar to and echoing Bishop's previous correspondence with Marianne Moore. Swenson is shown to be one of the most acute readers of Bishop - sometimes almost too acute in her understanding of the many poetic dodges and balancing acts her older friend maintained in achieving an aesthetic response to Swenson's essentially Dionysic questioning.
Reading through each essay reveals Swenson's profound intellect, one that used an ongoing and unceasing internal discourse to create her own poetic vision, a vision imbued with complexly positive felicites, delighting the senses, even as darker thoughts jangle the mind.
Any first work on so fine a poet as Swenson is welcome; this work, with its variety of essays is especially true to its goal - a rereading and initial introduction to one of America's great poets. As the authors correctly put it, "Her work is ripe for further discovery."