A Wreath for Emmett Till
Posted by:
ocean cat (IP Logged)
Date: August 30, 2010 07:25AM
...HAS ANYONE READ THIS BOOK.
It's a short YA book of poetry by Marilyn Nelson, Poet Laureate of Connecticut--or rather, the book is comprised of a heroic crown of sonnets.
As Nelson explains in her preface (How I Came To Write This Poem):
"A crown of sonnets is a sequence of interlinked sonnets in which the last line of one becomes the first line, sometimes slightly altered, of the next. A heroic crown of sonnets is a sequence of fifteen interlocking sonnets, in which the last one is made up of the first lines of the preceding fourteen."
It came out in '05, but I'd never heard of it before I caught a special on it the other night where the author read the whole thing and... all I can say is wow. Just, wow.
...Seriously, like, EVERY SINGLE LINE gave me chills. Really, truly incredibly powerful stuff. It's got a level of intensity and perfection, in how every word is so carefully chosen, that I think 99% of poets can only dream of.
...Of course it helps that the subject matter is so very intense, but Nelson makes it heartbreaking in an incredibly beautiful, rather than a gory or overly violent manner. I mean, the violence is definitely there, but--gah I can't even describe it.
Oh yes. NOT ONLY did Nelson pull off this unbelievably difficult form in stunning fashion, but she made the first letters of the first lines of every sonnet form an acrostic, so that the sequence of first letters of every line in the last sonnet spells out "R.I.P. EMMETT L. TILL." Now normally I find acrostics cheesy and unnecessary. This one, however, adds yet another layer to an incredibly complex, beautiful poem.
For as horrific a piece of history as the death of Emmett Till, I used to think there were no words.
Marilyn Nelson has proved me wrong.
Edited 1 times. Last edit at 08/30/10 07:26AM by ocean cat.
