Faster Than Light

New and Selected Poems, 1996-2011

Fiction & Literature, Poetry
Cover of the book Faster Than Light by Marilyn Nelson, LSU Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Marilyn Nelson ISBN: 9780807147368
Publisher: LSU Press Publication: November 12, 2012
Imprint: LSU Press Language: English
Author: Marilyn Nelson
ISBN: 9780807147368
Publisher: LSU Press
Publication: November 12, 2012
Imprint: LSU Press
Language: English

Conjuring numerous voices and characters across oceans and centuries, Faster Than Light explores widely disparate experiences through the lens of traditional poetic forms. This volume contains a selection of Marilyn Nelson's new and uncollected poems as well as work from each of her lyric histories of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century African American individuals and communities.
Poems include the stories of historical figures like Emmett Till, the fourteen-year-old boy lynched in 1955, and the inhabitants of Seneca Village, an African American community razed in 1857 for the creation of Central Park. "Bivouac in a Storm" tells the story of a group of young soldiers, later known as the Tuskegee Airmen, as they trained near Biloxi, Mississippi, "marching in summer heat / thick as blackstrap molasses, under trees / haunted by whippings." Later pieces range from the poet's travels in Africa, Europe, and Polynesia, to poems written in collaboration with Father Jacques de Foiard Brown, a former Benedictine monk and the subject of Nelson's playful fictional fantasy sequence, "Adventure-Monk!" Both personal and historical, these poems remain grounded in everyday details but reach toward spiritual and moral truths.

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

Conjuring numerous voices and characters across oceans and centuries, Faster Than Light explores widely disparate experiences through the lens of traditional poetic forms. This volume contains a selection of Marilyn Nelson's new and uncollected poems as well as work from each of her lyric histories of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century African American individuals and communities.
Poems include the stories of historical figures like Emmett Till, the fourteen-year-old boy lynched in 1955, and the inhabitants of Seneca Village, an African American community razed in 1857 for the creation of Central Park. "Bivouac in a Storm" tells the story of a group of young soldiers, later known as the Tuskegee Airmen, as they trained near Biloxi, Mississippi, "marching in summer heat / thick as blackstrap molasses, under trees / haunted by whippings." Later pieces range from the poet's travels in Africa, Europe, and Polynesia, to poems written in collaboration with Father Jacques de Foiard Brown, a former Benedictine monk and the subject of Nelson's playful fictional fantasy sequence, "Adventure-Monk!" Both personal and historical, these poems remain grounded in everyday details but reach toward spiritual and moral truths.

More books from LSU Press

Cover of the book Lucy Somerville Howorth by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Bayou Classic by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Bad Girls at Samarcand by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Lee and His Generals in War and Memory by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Political Polling in the Digital Age by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Peculiar Crossroads by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book The Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Selling ASAP by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book The Kingfish and His Realm by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Literary Partnerships and the Marketplace by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book God's Loud Hand by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book The Caddos and Their Ancestors by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book New Orleans on Parade by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book The Novels of William Faulkner by Marilyn Nelson
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