Katherine Anne Porter's Poetry

by Porter, Katherine Anne; Unrue, Darlene Harbour

• ISBN13: 9781570030840
• ISBN10: 1570030847
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Pr

Summary

Katherine Anne Porter's Poetry makes available for the first time the complete poetic canon of one of America's most-celebrated writers. Widely known and revered for her award-winning short stories, Porter published just thirty-two poems and poetry translations during her lifetime, although she composed - and subsequently destroyed - hundreds. Her poetry is virtually unknown even by her most devoted followers. From fragmentary notes and letters found among Porter's papers, Darlene Harbour Unrue has recovered and edited eighteen unpublished poems. In a significant addition to the Porter canon, these newly found poems join Porter's published verse - including the entire text of the now-rare Katherine Anne Porter's French Song-Book - to create a unique commentary on the writer's life and work.
Interspersed with photographs of Porter from the years and places in which she composed the poems, the volume features a substantial critical and biographical essay in which Unrue explains the significance of individual poems and details the relationship between Porter's poetry and fiction. Unrue describes Porter's verse as an index to the stages of her developing intellectual thought and, in some cases, an intermediate phase in a creative process that began with random notes and letters and culminated in fiction.

Table of Contents

Illustrations
Preface
Introduction	p. 1
The Poems	p. 63
Texas: By the Gulf of Mexico	p. 65
A Dying Child	p. 66
Song with Castanet Accompaniment	p. 67
[Down, you Mongrel Death]	p. 68
Variation 1001: To the Foolish Virgins Who Aren't Gathering Roses	p. 69
Ordeal by Ploughshare	p. 70
This Transfusion	p. 71
Witch's Song	p. 72
Enchanted	p. 73
Three Songs from Mexico: In Tepozotlan	p. 74
Three Songs from Mexico: Remembering Cuernavaca
Three Songs from Mexico: Fiesta de Santiago
[Lights on the river]	p. 76
Now No Spring	p. 77
Little Requiem	p. 78
To a Portrait of the Poet	p. 79
November in Windham	p. 81
Winter Burial	p. 82
First Episode	p. 83
Morning Song	p. 85
Night Blooming Cereus	p. 86
West Indian Island	p. 87
Music of the Official Jarabe and Versos	p. 90
Bouquet for October	p. 93
Note, by Katherine Anne Porter	p. 95
Morning Song for the Dame de Fayel	p. 97
Lament	p. 99
Marion's Song	p. 101
Sing, I Pray You	p. 104
Mary Stuart's Plaint for Her Youth	p. 106
In Praise of Gabrielle d'Estree	p. 108
To Charlotte	p. 111
Drinking Song	p. 114
Marlborough	p. 119
Shepherdess, Be Kind	p. 124
The Shower	p. 126
The King Beats the Drum	p. 128
Full Moon	p. 132
Bridge of Avignon	p. 135
The Three Sailors	p. 137
My Mother Chose My Husband	p. 140
Oh, Close to My Sweetheart	p. 145
Song (from the French of Clement Marot [1496-1544])	p. 150
Liberals	p. 151
Measures for Song and Dance	p. 152
Time Has Heaped a Bitter Dust	p. 154
Anniversary in a Country Cemetery	p. 155
The Olive Grove	p. 156
afternoon walk to her	p. 157
Morning Song of the Tinker's Bitch	p. 158
After a Long Journey	p. 159
Christmas Song	p. 163
Appendix: Early Drafts of the Poems	p. 165
Bibliography	p. 173
Index	p. 181
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.