A review by variousfictions
Glass, Irony and God by Anne Carson

4.5

The Glass Essay is the jewel in the crown. A poem that had me reflecting on my own life's prisons and the pain of lost love. But there's more to enjoy and ponder in this collection too. I was particularly enamoured with The Fall of Rome: A Traveller's Guide, a poem in which Carson recalls a trip to the Italian city where she works through a sense of alienation, weaving classical myth and philosophy into a poetic memoir that has become somewhat a trademark of her style. I loved this part, which is something I have felt when abroad (and at home at times) but have been unable to express so succinctly. Probably because I am not Anne Carson: 

What is the holiness of the citizen?
It is to open

a day

to a stranger,
who has no day
of his own.

The final piece, Gender of Sound, is an insightful essay on how the sound of the voice shapes our perception of gender, using examples from ancient Greece and Rome (of course), through to the modern day, and how those perceptions have created barriers for women in society due to the female voice, in its tone and usage, being judged as something in opposition to societal order. Really well researched and thought-provoking. 

Very likely a book I will revisit in the months and years to come.