Subterranean [Hardcover]

Jill Bialosky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 6, 2001

Jill Bialosky follows her acclaimed debut collection, The End of Desire, with this powerful sequence of poems that probes the subterranean depths of eros. Gerald Stern has called Bialosky “the poet of the secret garden, the place, at once, of grace and sadness,” and here she enters that garden again, blending the classical with the contemporary in bold considerations of desire, fertility, virginity, and childbirth. Written against the idealizations of romantic love and motherhood, she tells of the loss of one child and the birth of another, the fierce passions of life before children, the seductions of suicide, and the comforts of art. Throughout, she braids and unbraids the distinct yet often inseparable themes of motherhood, love, and sexuality. “When he comes to me,” she writes,

half-filled glass
in his hand, wanting
me to touch him, I hear
you stir in your crib. I know what your body      
  feels like.
The soft skin of a flower, not bruised, not yet
  in torment . . .

Subterranean is the moving and intimate account of the emergence of a female psyche. Like the figures of Persephone and Demeter, who appear in various forms in these poems, Bialosky finds a strange beauty in grief, and emerges from the realms of temptation with insight and distinction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This second collection follows 1997's well-received The End of Desire and comes bespangled with impressive encomia from the likes of Harold Bloom, Eavan Boland and Molly Peacock, praising Bialosky's voice, her "dark chill power" and the volume's "mythic underworld collage." The End of Desire touched many readers in the way that poets like Boland and Linda Pastan have, conjuring a modern-day woman trying to make empowering sense out her emotions in the face of mysterious world processes and dangerous, if desirable, others. The poems here, which alternate between long blank verse and skeins of short, dimeter tercets, follow a tried-and-true formula: a parade of natural phenomena weather, sun and moon, physical desire is sorted and measured until some perspective is achieved. The "she" of most of these poems (relieved on occasion by a fresh "I") ransacks a store of conventional emotions looking for wisdom, but finds mostly turbulence and weightlessness radiating from an "inner core" that nonetheless can crack cement and make the wind swoon. The poems work this ground with manic insistence, and, despite the fervid effort, harvest insights that are curiously banal: "The snow/ is wet/ like rain.// It will not/ stick/ or accumulate." Nonetheless, there is much here of topical interest losing one's virginity, miscarriages, first love, motherhood that will please the reader looking for candor about emotional frailty and conflicted love. (Dec.)Forecast: Bialosky is a highly regarded editor at W.W. Norton and the co-editor of Wanting a Child, an anthology of reflections on parenthood. With this book's impressive blurbs, arresting jacket (which sports an Edward Steichen portrait) and status as a finalist for the James Laughlin Prize from the Academy of American Poets, it should generate plenty of attention.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

"She did not know when it would happen/ or how it would overtake her/ or whether she would allow herself./ All I know is that she could not take it anymore/ lying day after day underneath the hollow tree, waiting,/ consumed by a kind of fire." These are the poems of a woman trying to come to terms with the idea, contradictions, curiosities, and demands of womanhood. She writes of her beginnings in Cleveland: "From the top of the tower when the sun set in the Cuyahoga's brown waters/ (the river that caught fire and made our city the laughing stock of a nation)/ it cast a dark shadow over the industrial sky." Desire, virginity, fertility and motherhood, the loss of one child and the birth of another, the passions of her life before children, the seductions of suicide, and the comforts of art these are at the core of Bialosky's poetry. With a tone and an integrity that are consistent and sure and an aesthetic that is varied and original, these poems touch on fragile moments and dark corners: "To stave off/ loneliness/ I took in two cats/ for the company/ not knowing/ the female/ was expecting./ I was in love/ with a man/ who lived/ with another/ woman." Using myth, particularly the story of Persephone and Demeter, as a touchstone, Bialosky (The End of Desire) finds the beauty in grief: "The sky weeps/ like Persephone released/ from the underworld/ to favor us with flowers." Recommended for poetry and women's studies collections. Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (November 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375413146
• ISBN-13: 978-0375413148
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,256,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perpetuation of the Subliminal, December 17, 2002

By 

Sean Lynch (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Subterranean (Hardcover)

There are many emotions and strategies present in Jill Bialosky's Subterranean. The work is very careful, full of presence and reality, and pays great attention to the perpetuation of the subliminal.
I think it very important that we as readers remember not to just read a title but to consider it part of the poem and of the work as a whole. Begin with the title of the work: subterranean. The definition can simply mean "underneath the Earth's surface". However, there is a definition that seems to be much more suited to Bialosky's work: "lying beneath what is revealed or avowed, especially being deliberately concealed". There is this ever-growing need throughout the book to uncover the hidden aspects of our lives. It begins with the first poem, aptly named "Subterranean". We are continually presented with poems that force discovery and want for birth, for renewal.
I had an endless feeling of pulling, of something beneath the words, that there was a force within each poem begging to be discovered. This wonderful intensity pulls the reader through the work, forcefully. You want to read, want to find the cause...you want to know what's underneath the surface. There's a pulsing in this book, a quickening of language, followed by languid urgency, and then a punctuation of thought; a rise and fall, push and pull of poetic and emotional elements.
Bialosky's voice is one that is fresh and unique. Her use of the short-line style brings such poignancy and subtle impact to her work while her languid long line poems present in the latter half of Subterranean exhibit her simple, yet brilliant use of language. The connectedness of her imagery never ceases to form beautiful scenes that help in the smooth presentation of intense emotion.
I would recommend Jill Bialosky's latest book to anyone yearning for a fresh voice with a unique and versatile style. Chilling, provocative, resonant, Subterranean is an experience for any reader eager for a taste of unique poetic storytelling.