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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
American Melancholy is an informative and driven compilation of experiences, thoughts, and insights of the author. Accurate and genuine, all the sensations that come with the little moments and the major events are brought to life through some of these poems.
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
I can't believe she's a university professor in Princeton and she's putting out this sort of crap. Almost all of the poems have an air of pretentiousness, a burst bubble of saying more than they actually say. Though I prefer more structured poetry, I can't say that I don't appreciate free-form, but this is... It doesn't read like poetry. It reads like someone wrote avant-garde snippets and liberally applied the "enter" key to make it poetry. It doesn't have a pleasant rhythm of cadence and is steeped in a weird haughty postmodernist mood. The poems weren't nearly as cheeky or clever as they wanted to be.
I can't believe this was my first read of 2023! What a stinker.
I can't believe this was my first read of 2023! What a stinker.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
“The Blessing
Barefoot daring
To walk
Amid
The thrashing eye glitter
Of what remains
When the tide
Retreats
We ask ourselves
Why did it matter
So much
To have the last
Word?
Or any
Word?
Here, please—
Take what
remains.
It is yours.”
Barefoot daring
To walk
Amid
The thrashing eye glitter
Of what remains
When the tide
Retreats
We ask ourselves
Why did it matter
So much
To have the last
Word?
Or any
Word?
Here, please—
Take what
remains.
It is yours.”
emotional
sad
fast-paced
For someone who said that young white male authors are having trouble getting published, I expected better. I feel like if you’re going to talk all that nonsense, the least you could do is be a decent poet/writer.
Joyce Carol Oates is one of those writers that gets shove down your throat if you’ve ever had the chance of taking any writing workshops. Personally, I did like a couple of her story stories. Her poetry on the other hand is lackluster. I’m a big fan of narrative poems but the ones in this collection reads like short stories if anything else. The repetition felt weird and out of place at times. “Drown together in his car in Lake Chippewa./ It was a bright cold starry night on Lake Chippewa./ Lake Chippewas was…” Stop it, we get it, this takes place in Lake Chippewa. The two poems that are a list of “because” statements are just lazy and didn’t go anywhere.
The two poems that deals with China caught me off guard but told me everything I need to know. It’s giving white feminism vibes, which I expected nothing less from Oates. My biggest pet peeve is white poets using atrocities that happened in other people’s countries for shock value. Not making any excuses or arguing against the human rights abuses committed by the Chinese government but the phrase “pot calling the kettle black” exists. Americans’ obsession with China and “commies” is funny because I feel like it’s a one sided beef.
Joyce Carol Oates is one of those writers that gets shove down your throat if you’ve ever had the chance of taking any writing workshops. Personally, I did like a couple of her story stories. Her poetry on the other hand is lackluster. I’m a big fan of narrative poems but the ones in this collection reads like short stories if anything else. The repetition felt weird and out of place at times. “Drown together in his car in Lake Chippewa./ It was a bright cold starry night on Lake Chippewa./ Lake Chippewas was…” Stop it, we get it, this takes place in Lake Chippewa. The two poems that are a list of “because” statements are just lazy and didn’t go anywhere.
The two poems that deals with China caught me off guard but told me everything I need to know. It’s giving white feminism vibes, which I expected nothing less from Oates. My biggest pet peeve is white poets using atrocities that happened in other people’s countries for shock value. Not making any excuses or arguing against the human rights abuses committed by the Chinese government but the phrase “pot calling the kettle black” exists. Americans’ obsession with China and “commies” is funny because I feel like it’s a one sided beef.
emotional
reflective
reflective
fast-paced
favorites- palliative, jubilate, apocalypso
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Suicide, Abortion