The Messenger

Fiction & Literature, Poetry, American
Cover of the book The Messenger by Stephanie Pippin, University of Iowa Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Stephanie Pippin ISBN: 9781609381653
Publisher: University of Iowa Press Publication: April 1, 2013
Imprint: University Of Iowa Press Language: English
Author: Stephanie Pippin
ISBN: 9781609381653
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Publication: April 1, 2013
Imprint: University Of Iowa Press
Language: English

In thrilling poems of metamorphosis and birth, death and dissolution, Stephanie Pippin’s debut collection returns us to a world unshorn of wildness. Delivering accident and hunger, love and grief, nature in these poems is beautiful and brutal, “a hellish magnificence” that both invites and denies the meanings we project onto it. Refusing the domesticated comfort of our usual myths, Pippin reminds us of our place as creatures among others in a world where “what isn’t dead / is dying,” and where the thrill of predatory flight commingles with the desperation of the prey.

This mesmerizing and astonishingly assured collection offers a message as harrowing as it is essential. Faced with the hard master of necessity—“angel stinking of his own / excitement”—and bare before what Mallarmé called “the horror of the forest,” we are helpless, finally, to do anything to save what we love. Our sole task, these poems insist, is to look on while we can, and to love harder. 

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In thrilling poems of metamorphosis and birth, death and dissolution, Stephanie Pippin’s debut collection returns us to a world unshorn of wildness. Delivering accident and hunger, love and grief, nature in these poems is beautiful and brutal, “a hellish magnificence” that both invites and denies the meanings we project onto it. Refusing the domesticated comfort of our usual myths, Pippin reminds us of our place as creatures among others in a world where “what isn’t dead / is dying,” and where the thrill of predatory flight commingles with the desperation of the prey.

This mesmerizing and astonishingly assured collection offers a message as harrowing as it is essential. Faced with the hard master of necessity—“angel stinking of his own / excitement”—and bare before what Mallarmé called “the horror of the forest,” we are helpless, finally, to do anything to save what we love. Our sole task, these poems insist, is to look on while we can, and to love harder. 

More books from University of Iowa Press

Cover of the book See You in the Streets by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book Tell Everyone I Said Hi by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book Dakota in Exile by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book Making Americans by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book Hog Wild by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book Mass Authorship and the Rise of Self-Publishing by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book Up in Here by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book On Behalf of the Family Farm by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book The Iowa Lakeside Laboratory by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book In the Tree Where the Double Sex Sleeps by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book The Scientific Nomenclature of Birds in the Upper Midwest by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book The Phantom Unmasked by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book James Weldon Johnson's Modern Soundscapes by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book The Penelope Project by Stephanie Pippin
Cover of the book Playing Fans by Stephanie Pippin
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy