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Columbarium
Winner of the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award in the category of poetry.
In her long-awaited fourth book of poetry, Susan Stewart gives us a series of splendid, numinous poems about truths learned with the mind but set free through the senses. Modeled on the seventeenth-century practice of century forms, or books of one hundred pages, Columbarium expresses the bond between the living and the dead in voices of parent to child, lover to beloved, and mortal to the gods. The book arrives as a meditative gift from one of our most respected poet-critics.
Stewart frames her Columbarium with four poems paying homage to the elements-to their destructive and creative aspects and to their roles in the human and more than human worlds. Both nest and crypt, the book's center holds an alphabet of "shadow georgics," poems of instruction and doubt that link knowledge and the unconscious. Questions of mortality, of goodness and suffering, and of the fragility and power of memory animate these poems. In one poem an apple calls the narrator back from the dead to savor the echoes of its varieties in myth and literature. In another, the seeds of a pear tree reveal the essential unity that makes the diversity of existence possible.
Stewart's Columbarium is both a memorial to the dead and a testament to life.
In her long-awaited fourth book of poetry, Susan Stewart gives us a series of splendid, numinous poems about truths learned with the mind but set free through the senses. Modeled on the seventeenth-century practice of century forms, or books of one hundred pages, Columbarium expresses the bond between the living and the dead in voices of parent to child, lover to beloved, and mortal to the gods. The book arrives as a meditative gift from one of our most respected poet-critics.
Stewart frames her Columbarium with four poems paying homage to the elements-to their destructive and creative aspects and to their roles in the human and more than human worlds. Both nest and crypt, the book's center holds an alphabet of "shadow georgics," poems of instruction and doubt that link knowledge and the unconscious. Questions of mortality, of goodness and suffering, and of the fragility and power of memory animate these poems. In one poem an apple calls the narrator back from the dead to savor the echoes of its varieties in myth and literature. In another, the seeds of a pear tree reveal the essential unity that makes the diversity of existence possible.
Stewart's Columbarium is both a memorial to the dead and a testament to life.
- GenresPoetry
132 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
4 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
Susan Stewart
92 books68 followersSusan Stewart (born 1952) is an American poet, university professor and literary critic.
Professor Stewart holds degrees from Dickinson College (B.A. in English and Anthropology), the Johns Hopkins University (M.F.A. in Poetics) and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D. in Folklore). She teaches the history of poetry, aesthetics, and the philosophy of literature, most recently at Princeton University.
Her poems have appeared in many journals including: The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review, Poetry, Tri-Quarterly, Gettysburg Review, Harper's, Georgia Review, Ploughshares, and Beloit Poetry Journal.
In the late 2000s she collaborated with composer James Primosch on a song cycle commissioned by the Chicago Symphony that premiered in the fall of 2009. She has served on the judging panel of the Wallace Stevens Award on six occasions.
In 2005 Professor Stewart was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
About her work, the poet and critic Allen Grossman has written, "Stewart has built a poetic syntax capable of conveying an utterly singular account of consciousness, by the light of which it is possible to see the structure of the human world with a new clarity and an unforeseen precision, possible only in her presence and by means of her art."
(from Wikipedia)
Professor Stewart holds degrees from Dickinson College (B.A. in English and Anthropology), the Johns Hopkins University (M.F.A. in Poetics) and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D. in Folklore). She teaches the history of poetry, aesthetics, and the philosophy of literature, most recently at Princeton University.
Her poems have appeared in many journals including: The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review, Poetry, Tri-Quarterly, Gettysburg Review, Harper's, Georgia Review, Ploughshares, and Beloit Poetry Journal.
In the late 2000s she collaborated with composer James Primosch on a song cycle commissioned by the Chicago Symphony that premiered in the fall of 2009. She has served on the judging panel of the Wallace Stevens Award on six occasions.
In 2005 Professor Stewart was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
About her work, the poet and critic Allen Grossman has written, "Stewart has built a poetic syntax capable of conveying an utterly singular account of consciousness, by the light of which it is possible to see the structure of the human world with a new clarity and an unforeseen precision, possible only in her presence and by means of her art."
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 15, 2018
I love the way that Susan Stewart approaches conceptualizing, making, arranging a book of poems. I had never heard of a georgic before but now I’m a teensy but obsessed. I can’t wait to revisit this book in a few months.
November 8, 2021
These poems move across the page and through the mind. The formats on the page are fascinating! The topics here are often nature based. Apple and The Rose are favorites. The elements are another theme. This is another collection I look forward to spending more time with in the future.
June 17, 2020
her poems almost work for me, but not quite. not my thing.
August 20, 2008
Columbarium means a dove-cote or pigeon coop. Smashing!
September 8, 2019
[rating = A-]
Miss Stewart is a new poet to me and I picked her up by chance in a used bookstore. Regardless, I was blown away by her fearless innovation (the way she indented and used linguistic and spatial topography) and her keen use of language. The majority of her poems were fantastic. I loved how they did not solely describe objects or ideas, but blended narrative (sometimes) with different perspectives, different views that expanded the poem in a sophisticated way. These were not terribly difficult poems to read, yet they did challenge the reader in other ways. And although not all the poems connected to the next, her ability to portray and illustrate her ideas and emotions was impressive. I will most certainly be reading more from Miss Stewart.
Miss Stewart is a new poet to me and I picked her up by chance in a used bookstore. Regardless, I was blown away by her fearless innovation (the way she indented and used linguistic and spatial topography) and her keen use of language. The majority of her poems were fantastic. I loved how they did not solely describe objects or ideas, but blended narrative (sometimes) with different perspectives, different views that expanded the poem in a sophisticated way. These were not terribly difficult poems to read, yet they did challenge the reader in other ways. And although not all the poems connected to the next, her ability to portray and illustrate her ideas and emotions was impressive. I will most certainly be reading more from Miss Stewart.
May 29, 2017
Note: the author was my college thesis advisor.
I have to admit that I'm not usually much of a fan of modern poetry (most of the stuff I like is from at the very latest the mid-20th century. But I liked Stewart's poems a lot, with her excellent use of language and compelling imagery, especially literary and other allusions. I may have to re-evaluate modern poetry now. Hearing it read aloud (from the National Library Service for the Blind) was a bit weird at first, but I think ultimately helped me appreciate it more. We'll definitely try more of Stewart's books (and some more contemporary poetry in general).
I have to admit that I'm not usually much of a fan of modern poetry (most of the stuff I like is from at the very latest the mid-20th century. But I liked Stewart's poems a lot, with her excellent use of language and compelling imagery, especially literary and other allusions. I may have to re-evaluate modern poetry now. Hearing it read aloud (from the National Library Service for the Blind) was a bit weird at first, but I think ultimately helped me appreciate it more. We'll definitely try more of Stewart's books (and some more contemporary poetry in general).
January 19, 2019
If you've wrestled with Stewart's criticism, you come back to her poems with new eyes, and they seem crystal clear. This is a book that works on very different levels, that intrigues and moves all at the same time. Here's a little thing I wrote years ago:
https://annarborobserver.com/articles...
https://annarborobserver.com/articles...
February 10, 2021
3.5 stars
July 5, 2008
I didn't connect deeply with many of these poems till toward the end, with pieces such as "Wrought from the generation of Earth":
Look for her, lie along the meadow; you can hear the hum
of the stalks and leaves, the full buzz so unlike
a shell's hollow roar. Lie along the field and feel the mineral cold,
bone-chilling deep below the warmth of the loam. Lie in the dead leaves
and do not make a sound and love will cut furrows in the soil of grief.
Look for her, lie along the meadow; you can hear the hum
of the stalks and leaves, the full buzz so unlike
a shell's hollow roar. Lie along the field and feel the mineral cold,
bone-chilling deep below the warmth of the loam. Lie in the dead leaves
and do not make a sound and love will cut furrows in the soil of grief.
April 2, 2007
Thoughtful, careful poetry. Stewart's poems are visually (as well as verbally) interesting without being distracting.
to_finish_reading_soon
April 4, 2008I've heard such good things about this one.
January 10, 2008
It's good, but not as good as I remember The Forest being. It just doesn't have that same sensual energy in it, which would be helpful in talking about the role of the elements in this world.
August 13, 2008
One of those books that I can tell is pretty great, but that doesn't mean I have to "love" it. Love some of the forms though.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews