Kyrie: Poems (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kyrie eleison-Lord have mercy. In this book-length sequence Voigt (Two Trees) develops a portrait in mosaic of the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic, set against the backdrop of WWI. Seldom have panic and despair been depicted so lyrically. A young schoolteacher and her fiance, a soldier, are the principal speakers in these loosely structured sonnets; in the teacher's voice, Voigt finds a form to embody compassion driven out by fear. Associations are carried through powerful imagery. Early in the book, when her sister dreams of dead animals with human faces, the teacher assumes her fiance has been injured: "I didn't know/it was us she saw in the bloody trenches." Voigt uses several voices, most not precisely identified; readers become major players, joining or separating the speakers at will. Modern poets as diverse as John Berryman and Ted Berrigan have explored the sonnet form, but these mostly expanded verses add new dimensions.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

[M]ajestic. . . . Voigt inhabits, rather than simply 'tells,' the story of this great, but largely neglected epilogue to the Great War. (Commonweal )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; Reprint edition (September 17, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393315614
• ISBN-13: 978-0393315615
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #687,681 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Once the world had its fill of war", June 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Kyrie: Poems (Hardcover)

Kyrie, Ellen Voigt's 1995 collection of poems, takes the Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919 as its inspiration. Voigt's narrative poems create distinct characters (the members of a rural American family) in order to illustrate the suffering and the small redemptions of the winter of 1918-1919. The poems are written as letters, prayers, songs, and even sorrowful curses as the daily life and the inner thoughts of various family members are explored. One poem beautifully describes a bed used by the family: "This is the double bed where she'd been born,/ bed of her mother's marriage and decline,/ bed her sisters also ripened in,/ bed that drew her husband to her side..."

Other poems deal with marriage and piano-playing, as well as hogs and chickens. Voigt is truly a master of the narrative poem; these untraditional, free-verse sonnets are musical and wry. What other contemporary poet can riff on hogs "Hogs aren't pretty but they're smart,/ and clean as you let them be" AND write such good metaphors: "We rode the mule to lessons, birds on a branch--/you know what it means to have your own piano?"

Voigt's illustration of a lesser-known chapter of American history is profoundly written, and her characters are inviting. Any reader will enjoy Kyrie.