The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales [Paperback]

Jeanne Marie Beaumont (Editor), Claudia Carlson (Editor), Galway Kinnell (Collaborator), Denise Duhamel (Collaborator), Emma Bull (Collaborator), Randall Jarrell (Collaborator), Olga Broumas (Collaborator), Jane Yolen (Collaborator), Lucille Clifton Allen Tate (Collaborator), Carol Ann Duffy Anne Sexton (Collaborator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2003

Writers and readers have long been inspired by the haunting wisdom and sheer imaginative power to be found in the fairy tales of the immortal Brothers Grimm. The editors have collected more than a hundred poems inspired by Grimm tales and written by our finest living poets. A brilliant and informative anthology, a teachable text.

Jeanne Marie Beaumont first book of poetry, Placebo Effects, was selected by William Matthews for the National Poetry Series in 1997. She teaches at Rutgers University. Claudia Carlson works at Oxford University Press in New York. Her poems have appeared in Heliotrope, Coracle, Space and Time, Fantastic Stories and NYCBigCityLit.comm

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The German myths shrunken into children's tales with the coming of Christianity might have been lost with the arrival of the modern era were it not for the methodical and comprehensive work of brothers Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859) Grimm and the latter's wife, Dortchen Wild, source of many stories, who is rarely credited. The archetypal power of the stories, especially those with female protagonists, has induced many poets to employ their themes, motifs, and characters. This ample collection stresses the utility of the Grimm tales to women who, like Anne Sexton, Carol Ann Duffy, and Lucille Clifton, find in these "old wives' tales" a repository of strong feminine imagery. But the figures and plots of the tales are too complex to countenance poets who would use the stories for mere polemics, and so the poets at hand include Galway Kinnell and Denise Duhamel, Randall Jarrell and Olga Broumas, Jane Yolen and Allen Tate. A strong, readable, uniformly high-quality anthology. Patricia Monaghan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Introduction: These poems reveal the complex relationship that exists between contemporary poets and a received body of myth or lore. The Grimm tales are subject to a significant amount of skepticism, of refutation or "talking back," and of fracturing or breaking down. Yet an abiding, if irreverent, affection and appreciation for the tales, an acknowledgment of their continuing pull and metaphoric power also can be discerned. There is a mutual enrichment when poets become tale (re)tellers: the poets keep the stories current and fresh and give them back their original vivacity, rigor, and immediacy, while the stories enable the poets to tap into a vast and resonant source of symbol and cultural history. The tales become again "full of mystery like all living things," released from the confines of the nursery, rescued from ossification or sentimentalization, able again to fill us with wonder, dread, and delight.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Story Line Press (June 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586540270
• ISBN-13: 978-1586540272
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,233,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeanne Marie Beaumont was born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs and moved to New York City in 1983. She is author of three books of poetry and currently teaches at the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y and in the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Go Into the Woods Without It, September 20, 2003

By 

Deborah Atherton (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales (Paperback)

THE POETS GRIMM is an essential addition to the collection of anyone who grew up with fairy tales - that is, everyone in America who ever opened a storybook that began "Once upon a time. . ." or watched a Disney movie that opened with a princess tortured by her evil stepmother. Here are the stories from the Grimm brothers collections that terrified and delighted us as children, now revisited with adult distance, wisdom, and humor. Ably edited by Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Claudia Carlson, THE POETS GRIMM embraces the breadth of poetry in English in the 20th century, from our most recent poet laureate, Louise Glück, to writers like Terri Windling and Jane Yolen, best known for their work in contemporary fantasy and science fiction. Anne Sexton's important poem, "Twelve Dancing Princesses," from her groundbreaking collection TRANSFORMATIONS, is included, as is an intensely moving poem by Amy Lowell from 1912, which strikes a surprisingly contemporary note.

A deep sympathy for the much maligned usual suspects, wolves and witches, underlies the entire volume, and frankly, if I were Prince Charming, I'd have a call in to my lawyer about a possible libel suit. Perhaps most American of all the Grimm interpretations found here is Tim Siebles' "What Bugs Bunny said to Red Riding Hood," which alone is worth the price of the entire collection.

Reading the poems in this collection bathes the old tales in a new and revelatory light; most telling of all perhaps are the poems which offer new versions of the detailed and mysterious marching orders given to every fairy tale hero or heroine who set off, willingly or not, on a quest. Neil Gaiman's "Instructions," in this vein, makes wonderful new sense of these ever-puzzling rules. Through these poems we see our own childhoods recast, and the clamor of impossibly conflicting childhood directives we all received invoked and examined.

The Poets Grimm offers a wonderful snapshot of poetry of the last half of the last century, taken through an enchanted lens, and I highly recommend it to anyone who ever felt a little cheated by the words, "And they lived happily ever after."

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grimms in Verse, September 17, 2003

By 

Heidi Anne Heiner (SurLaLune Fairy Tales.com) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales (Paperback)

While this collection might appear gimmicky to some, a quick persusal of the table of contents will show that many respected poets have used fairy tale motifs in their work. Beaumont and Carlson have gathered numerous poems from a wide range of poets that reflect the enduring themes and characters we inherited through the work of the Brothers Grimm. The usual suspects, such as Anne Sexton, are here but so are some lesser known poets. The anthology is strong and represents many well-known fairy tales along with a few that are lesser known by the general public. The book is recommended for libraries and classrooms in which poetry and/or fairy tales are taught. It also makes great armchair reading for anyone interested in new interpretations of familiar stories.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great poetry anthology, November 14, 2011

By 

S. Powell "prtybrd" (Texas) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales (Paperback)

I found this book through one of the poems, which was posted on the wall of one of my city's commuter trains. It took forever for me to find a copy since the anthology is basically out of print and out of reach for most people, unless you're willing to spend a pretty significant sum. This is quite unfortunate, as this is a pretty amazing little book. The poems range from actual retellings of the fairy tales to modern interpretations that you may not expect, and all are very tasteful and interesting. I found several that I bookmarked so that I could share them with others because they really spoke to me. Hopefully you can find a copy of this book because I'm recommending it for anyone who enjoys poetry and remembers reading the tales of the Brothers' Grimm when they were a child. I just wish they would bring it back into print.