Swan Electric

by April Bernard

In her searching, musical poems, April Bernard explores a range of subjects and forms—from a memoir sequence about New York City's East Village in the 1980s, to "disheveled" sonnets of spiritual self-interrogation, to darkly comic hallucinations. Bernard's idiosyncratic and profoundly emotional voice combines flights of fancy, moral sternness, and wit.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

April Bernard is the author of three poetry collections and a novel. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the Boston Review, the New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. She lives in Bennington, Vermont.

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've said it once and I'll say it again, April Bernard is the greatest living American poet. Her poems are like being slapped in the face with a wet-dream while being lowered into a pit of molten hate.

[Edmund Davis-Quinn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I flew through this and really wanted to like it more. But, the poems don't grab me at all. Reading poetry is so incredibly individual. One man's treasure might not grab someone else at all.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorites: See It Does Rise, Ktaadn, (from Song of Yes and No): 13. Hell, (from Eidetica): 1. Large Crow, 4. Dead Brother, 5. The Women Who Won't Appear