In a message dated 11/13/01 7:17:52 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
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Where, to bring it home (for me) to Canada, would we put Atwood's Journals
of Susannah Moodie, Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid,
Scobie's McAlmon's Chinese Opera & The Ballad of Isabel Gunn, Bowering's
George, Vancouver, & many other such book-length poems? Admitedly, many are
written in the first person, but history almost always is an important
context, & they do play off what is known biographically about their
titular figures...
It get's very complicated I suspect...
Doug >>
Biographical poetry has often been cast in the first person: dramatic
monologue. The poet Ai is a contemporary American master of this approach.
Another couple of poetry-biographies, done in first person, and both worth
looking up:
_Beside Herself: Pocahontas to Patty Heart_ by Pamela Hadas White
& an her earlier collection _Designing Women_.
Finnegan
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