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Red Rover
Red Rover is both the name of a children’s game and a formless spirit, a god of release and permission, called upon in the course of that game. The “red rover” is also a thread of desire, and a clue to the forces of love and antipathy that shape our fate. In her most innovative work to date, award-winning poet and critic Susan Stewart remembers the antithetical forces—falling and rising, coming and going, circling and centering—revealed in such games and traces them out to many other cycles. Ranging among traditional, open, and newly-invented forms, and including a series of free translations of medieval dream visions and love poems, Red Rover begins as a historical meditation on our fall and grows into a song of praise for the green and turning world.
- GenresPoetry
120 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2008
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30 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 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 15, 2018
The juxtapositions and give/take of forms paired with highly allusive themes in lyric and accessible language, keep Stewart's collection engaging. Accessible in language, but elliptical in themes and allusions, dynamic in its energy, but sometimes stayed in the concerns, Steward operates as a master of whiplash. Highly allusive, rich in images from the natural world--often Steward uses short lines and concrete imaginary, although the declarative will interrupt at moments adding texture and a natural voice to the poetry. Enjoyable and rewards re-reading.
August 2, 2016
I’m bewitched. These poems swoop, soar, propel you into the cosmos, and pull you underground. The language is accessible, but meaning often alludes me. That usually annoys me in poetry, but Stewart, from the very first poem, brought me under her spell. Her use of language is musical, mystical, enchanting. She gives us visions, dreams, childhood games, and familiar stories (e.g., Adam and Eve). Some poems are less ethereal, easier to grasp. Yet, when I'm most lost, I'm still absorbing some ineffable meaning. Her skilled use of repetition and alliteration casts a powerful chant-like spell.
The bird poems are my favorites. She opens with “The Owl.” The repetition, parallel phrases, and eerie tone reminded me of Poe’s “The Raven.” It starts
“I thought somehow a piece of cloth was tossed
into the night, a piece of cloth that flew
up then across, beyond the window.
A tablecloth or handkerchief, a knot
somehow unfolding, folded, pushing through
the thickness of the dark…”
Because of the title, I thought I knew what this poem was about until I got to
“I called this poem, ‘the owl,’
the name that, like a key, locked out the dark
and later let me close my book and sleep
a winter dream….”
Some of her most effective repetition is in the tragic poem, “Elegy Against the Massacre at the Amish School in West Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, Autumn 2006.” Each short stanza begins with the names of five girls killed, but changes the order of the names. This is followed by only three lines of text before repeating the names. We, like the bereaved families, are struck with the blow of loss again and again. Aside from the naming order, the first and last stanza are the same:
“Lena, Mary Liz, and Anna Mae
Marian, Naomi Rose
when time has stopped
where time has slowed
the horses wear the rain”
I’ll close with one of the simplest, most easily understood poems, “Wrens,” so opposite in tone from “The Owl.” It reminds me, in its exuberance, of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Beginning “their tumbling joy,” it closes
“I would not
lose them
could not lose
them know
if there’s
another
place another
world another life
there must be wrens.”
The bird poems are my favorites. She opens with “The Owl.” The repetition, parallel phrases, and eerie tone reminded me of Poe’s “The Raven.” It starts
“I thought somehow a piece of cloth was tossed
into the night, a piece of cloth that flew
up then across, beyond the window.
A tablecloth or handkerchief, a knot
somehow unfolding, folded, pushing through
the thickness of the dark…”
Because of the title, I thought I knew what this poem was about until I got to
“I called this poem, ‘the owl,’
the name that, like a key, locked out the dark
and later let me close my book and sleep
a winter dream….”
Some of her most effective repetition is in the tragic poem, “Elegy Against the Massacre at the Amish School in West Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, Autumn 2006.” Each short stanza begins with the names of five girls killed, but changes the order of the names. This is followed by only three lines of text before repeating the names. We, like the bereaved families, are struck with the blow of loss again and again. Aside from the naming order, the first and last stanza are the same:
“Lena, Mary Liz, and Anna Mae
Marian, Naomi Rose
when time has stopped
where time has slowed
the horses wear the rain”
I’ll close with one of the simplest, most easily understood poems, “Wrens,” so opposite in tone from “The Owl.” It reminds me, in its exuberance, of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Beginning “their tumbling joy,” it closes
“I would not
lose them
could not lose
them know
if there’s
another
place another
world another life
there must be wrens.”
December 30, 2020
Using nature as a building block for her poems, the author expands her vision to incorporate themes of the destruction of nature, war, and human relationships in her poems in this collection. However, the poems and themes don’t flow from one poem to another in this collection. It seems more scattershot as the poems lurch from one theme to another, and then back again.
The individual poems are often mystical or barebones, and fail to tell a story, or paint a comprehensible picture for the reader.
The individual poems are often mystical or barebones, and fail to tell a story, or paint a comprehensible picture for the reader.
October 23, 2014
Was really surprised and delighted by the sounds of this book.
May 23, 2021
1. Complaint: "I have swooned and sweltered, / though I've never felt another fear."
2. All of "II"
3. The Vision of Er: "And no one asked / to be a number or color, / distributed over the things / of this world, no one / asked to be radiance, or / an idea in the mind of another."
2. All of "II"
3. The Vision of Er: "And no one asked / to be a number or color, / distributed over the things / of this world, no one / asked to be radiance, or / an idea in the mind of another."
January 7, 2009
I enjoyed Stewart's previous two collections, but this one left me cold. There were some individual poems that I enjoyed, but her attempt to interconnect the poems through echo and image didn't work for me this time. On one level (the interconnecting of the poems)it is very comlex and probably brilliant, but that's the mechanical end of it, since at its heart the intent was to say something profound. On that front, I just felt as a whole that the collection was tedious and pretentious. Lots of shadows and circles, and with no detactable core. Another reading would probably get this up to four stars, but this is one I'm in no hurry to revisit.
September 18, 2010
Stewart's imagery reminds me of many classic prayers and also anthems, but there is also a tremendous amount of play with image and word (as one might expect from a book of poetry titled after a game). Fable, myth, and ancient romance fly through the texts, and there are many poems that would be fruitful for small group discussions and worship, dream projects and spiritual classes.
Read
August 24, 2010Prepare for the 2010 Poets Forum in New York City (October 28-30) by reading Stewart's newest book of poetry, and check out the Poets Forum 2010 bookshelf for the latest collections by each of the poets participating in the Poets Forum. Happy reading!
March 30, 2012
This was alright. I certainly liked it better than the last book of poetry that I read, Falling Higher. Still, not that many poems individually caught my eye.
I would try another book of hers if I came across it.
I would try another book of hers if I came across it.
October 8, 2008
I love Susan Stewart, but this collection didn't grab me until I reached the sonnet sequence "In the Western World," which I thought was terrific.
October 21, 2009
I'm going to have to read this again, sometime in the future, before I can go about the process of giving it the bogus and arbitrary star rating.
September 26, 2012
Did not particularly enjoy the first reading. We'll see if it improves on reflection. [I bumped it up to a three, though I was not impressed with the entire body of work.]
September 24, 2012
Well-crafted work. Bring your scholarly self to this read.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews