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sloatsj's review against another edition
5.0
I put off reading this for awhile, worrying it would be just flash and craft. I was afraid the pyjamas would be beautiful but there'd be no body inside them, you know? But there was a body, a fat breathing body, and instead of being exasperated I was impressed and inspired. Crafty, yes, and very Cheshire Cat, but not in a show-offy way.
seebrandyread's review
4.0
I don't think I've read Heather McHugh's work before, so it was interesting seeing a large breadth of her career. This collection samples from 25 years' worth of writing, and I think I got a sense of how she's evolved and grown as a writer. Her later work seems a little more occupied with the mundane or minute and she became much more experimental with language.
I think McHugh's style is reminiscent of Language school poets in that she plays around with word parts and sounds. She sometimes uses odd word choices and subverts sentence structure. Like jazz, I absolutely appreciate the skill required to be able to alter language and make it unfamiliar, and if I were to read a poem or two and take the time to think about it line for line I'm sure I'd learn plenty from it. However, reading many of them at a time causes the words to slide together and lose most of their meaning other than as pure sound.
Poetry sets itself apart from most prose in how it engages more of the senses. The shape of a poem's lines and stanzas are part of its visual effect. Poetry is meant to be read aloud, so to get a feel for its cadence and how all the qualities of alliteration, consonance, and assonance come together. When you read a poem out loud you allow your mouth to feel all of these qualities. McHugh's poems have these physical qualities in their craft and in their content. She includes quite a few poems about the body, especially its interactions with other bodies. I consider many of these to be "sexy," though some also deal with the traumatic, i.e. rape.
On the flip side of McHugh's study of the physical is her preoccupations with the spiritual, i.e. God. Poets have written about God for as long as there has been a written word. They write in praise, prayer, and imitation, questioning his role as sovereign creator. This poet is no exception to the rule. Mingling awe with frustration and doubt, the narrator works out her ambivalent feelings in fevered flourishes and introspective lyrics. She neither takes herself too seriously nor thinks herself bigger than the big picture.
I think McHugh's style is reminiscent of Language school poets in that she plays around with word parts and sounds. She sometimes uses odd word choices and subverts sentence structure. Like jazz, I absolutely appreciate the skill required to be able to alter language and make it unfamiliar, and if I were to read a poem or two and take the time to think about it line for line I'm sure I'd learn plenty from it. However, reading many of them at a time causes the words to slide together and lose most of their meaning other than as pure sound.
Poetry sets itself apart from most prose in how it engages more of the senses. The shape of a poem's lines and stanzas are part of its visual effect. Poetry is meant to be read aloud, so to get a feel for its cadence and how all the qualities of alliteration, consonance, and assonance come together. When you read a poem out loud you allow your mouth to feel all of these qualities. McHugh's poems have these physical qualities in their craft and in their content. She includes quite a few poems about the body, especially its interactions with other bodies. I consider many of these to be "sexy," though some also deal with the traumatic, i.e. rape.
On the flip side of McHugh's study of the physical is her preoccupations with the spiritual, i.e. God. Poets have written about God for as long as there has been a written word. They write in praise, prayer, and imitation, questioning his role as sovereign creator. This poet is no exception to the rule. Mingling awe with frustration and doubt, the narrator works out her ambivalent feelings in fevered flourishes and introspective lyrics. She neither takes herself too seriously nor thinks herself bigger than the big picture.
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