Bramble

by Susan Stewart

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Hardcover

Published April 30, 2026

About the author

Susan 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)

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d be lying if I said I felt surefooted throughout Susan Stewart’s newest poetry collection, Bramble, or, in a nod to the ocean imagery she sometimes employs, that I sailed along in a calm sea of comprehension. No, to move from the ocean to her title metaphor, I confess I did indeed find myself lost in a thicket, a “bramble.” Which to some casual readers of poetry (a category I emphatically place myself within) might seem reason not to pick up the collection. But while brambles are tough to get through, have thorns to be wary of, and can be disorienting as they force in unwanted directions (as anyone who has ever bushwhacked knows), they also have lovely flowers, wonderful tasting berries, and provide shelter leading to a surprising encounter with a small animal or beautiful birdsong. All of which makes Stewart’s title wholly appropriate.

I’m OK not fully grasping the meaning of every line, passage, or poem if I can be carried along by the emotion underlying the words, the atmosphere evoked by them, or the musicality and originality of the language itself. And all of those happened here. Sometimes lines caught me for their content: “And was I was the ghost/and you were the tomb/then you were the ghost, and I was the tomb.” Sometimes it was a combination of content and metaphor: “You cannot hammer the truth into a person or turn your wrist and use the claw to pry it out.” Sometimes it was an accumulation of emotion (here helped by repetition):

Stay near so you can answer
If you’re keeping track, you’ll
See the number. Wherever
There’s fear, they say, there’s
Forgiveness. I’m waiting, still
Waiting for a word. The sun
Will come again. Stay near.
In a flash, a thought of the
Days and nights when we
Were wove together by
Hands and limbs and lips,
Delirious with joy and the
Infinite sense of the infinite
Stretching before us. And
Now in this posthumous
Time, in a loneliness so close
To the lonely dead, it’s
Memory itself that returns
Each morning, quiet as a
Caress.

Sometimes it’s the playfulness of the internal rhymes, the precision of the language (“yellow iris stirs and sends her spear swelling through the duckweed and moss.”), the music on the words’ sounds as in the consonance and assonance and near rhymes here:

Broken bikes, lead pipes,
Fences and fans, bright wires
Spilling from a bashed-in TV
Bumpers and burn pots and
Pans, pockmarked
Scratched, awry, anything
Torqued, twisted, yanked
Apart.

There’s a joy in reading this level of craft and detail and thoughtfulness (partly due to the level of evident joy that went into creating it). And a cumulative effect, such that the two longest poems were also my two favorites. Making it an easy recommendation.

(note: line breaks from the quotes are not necessarily Stewart’s. As has frustrated me for years, my Kindle version will break lines at different spots dependent on whether I’m reading in page mode or landscape mode on my iPad, and differently again if I’m reading on my Kindle. Thus, the same line might be broken in three different places. So apologies for any errors)

[G. Laenvoir-Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bramble is a masterclass in taste, though not always in cohesion. The collection is at once playful and professorial, relying on Susan Stewart’s lifetime of reading, translations, and deep knowledge of form. Not every book is intended for a mass audience, and it’s safe to say that Bramble is not exactly for the Milk & Honey crowd.

Bramble is in conversation with external art in a way that lands firmly on the collegiate side of the poetic spectrum, and would actually make for a perfect assigned book in an English degree, because it naturally leads to background research. Many of these pieces were originally commissioned for art installations and orchestrations, and are fundamentally ekphrastic.

All that being said, even before I fully understood Bramble on its own terms - I was writing down lines and entire stanzas that I loved. Always a good sign.

The last section, “Channel”, represents the reader's final and most essential test. All of Stewart’s best instincts are on full display in this tour-de-force that closes the collection: the whirling, self-iterating, brachiating lists and images run like a river down the page.

The only thing keeping me from rating this the full 5/5 stars is the lack of ultimate cohesion. If there ever was a book that would benefit from a brief paragraph of context from the author at the top of each section or major movement, it’s this one. However, for the precocious reader, you may have a good deal of fun rereading the Psalms and comparing them with Stewart’s variants.

Bramble is an unconventional art trail guide, that is, itself, a piece of art. Do yourself a favor and start by reading the end notes, to get some hints about the landscapes around the trail.

[Nicole Perkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Bramble” by Susan Stewart is a collection of poetry that walks readers through life events viewed as an allegorical briar thicket. Who in their life has not felt like they are fighting their way through briars at least once, pierced and scratched by thorns made up of events we can’t control? “Ps. 102” is a beautiful vignette of a moment, simply written, lovely in its simplicity. “Waterfall near Corchiano” describes a painting in exquisite detail, while “The Horseshoe Crab” is both melodious and melancholy. “Minor Musics” reads like an enchantment: “A bobbin, a needle, a thimble, and chalk. / If it’s too far to run, it’s too close to walk. / A needle, a thimble, chalk, and a bobbin. / The cheer of a robin, now what was that?” What kind of spell will this chant cast?
In “Lucretius,” Stewart reminds us that there is hope despite our tribulations: “…One thing will clarify another, / and dark night will not rob you of / your way…” I copied so much of this book into my commonplace book, I can’t really do it justice in my review. I found this book truly beautiful and thought-provoking. This is one I will turn to again and again.

[Heloísa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting collection! The longer poems were by far my favourites, with special mention to The Horseshoe Crab and The Suggestion Box.

I didn’t find it entirely consistent in its themes (the first part, mainly) and it could be quite jarring to be thrown from one subject to the next without much thought given to connecting one another.

However, regarding flow and structure, it’s clear that Stewart had a vision for this collection, and I find intriguing how certain formatting changes in between poems. Besides, there’s some very beautiful construction of images and scenarios with delicate and tender language, giving this writing an otherworldly feeling to it.

It’s a collection that evokes many a sensation, and it’s definitely worth checking out.

[2raccoonsinacoat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetry is meant to be atmospheric and evocative and Susan Stewart certainly captures that in Bramble. Fans of natural and musical imagery would likely find something to appreciate here.

Stewart’s strength is in the musicality and rawness of her writing, as in The Dredging Machine and Suggestion Box. There’s a stream-of-consciousness element that was somewhat jarring for me and, maybe because of the format (ebook), difficult to follow. The themes seemed to jump around a lot, sometimes mid-sentence, and I struggled to find sync. Even so, I was able to enjoy this for the imagery and tone, even if I’m not sure I ever got the message she was putting across.

Thank you to University of Chicago Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very pretty collection! Stewart's use of imagery was incredibly visceral, which really helped evoke the themes and feelings from each poem. I also really liked the recurring motif of music; out of all the poems, "Pleyel" was by far my favourite. The sounds and visuals were beautiful, and delved into the simplicity of quiet moments.

Some of the poems weren't particularly consistent with each other, mainly regarding theme, but Stewart did a great job structuring the flow of the poems in a way that created an overall consistent atmosphere, which helped link things together nicely.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

[Anastey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley and Susan Stewart for sending me this advance review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was an interesting, yet confusing book of poetry.

It felt like a totally random stream of consciousness, that jumped from one thing to another sometimes even mid poem.

I think this book was a little more on the darker side of things, and a bit raw and angry at times too. It's a bit hard to review, because it felt like being in the middle of a word tornado with things flying around the page and not quite making sense all of the time.

[Venneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great poetry collection that tackles both the later years of life and biblical references.