
Jane Kenyon
The Making of a Poet
Dana Greene(Author)
University of Illinois Press
Published on 10. October 2023
Book
Hardback
216 pages
978-0-252-04538-7 (ISBN)
Description
Demystifying the "Poet Laureate of Depression" Pleasure-loving, sarcastic, stubborn, determined, erotic, deeply sad--Jane Kenyon's complexity and contradictions found expression in luminous poems that continue to attract a passionate following. Dana Greene draws on a wealth of personal correspondence and other newly available materials to delve into the origins, achievement, and legacy of Kenyon's poetry and separate the artist's life story from that of her husband, the award-winning poet Donald Hall.
Impacted by relatives' depression during her isolated childhood, Kenyon found poetry at college, where writers like Robert Bly encouraged her development. Her graduate school marriage to the middle-aged Hall and subsequent move to New Hampshire had an enormous impact on her life, moods, and creativity. Immersed in poetry, Kenyon wrote about women's lives, nature, death, mystical experiences, and melancholy--becoming, in her own words, an "advocate of the inner life." Her breakthrough in the 1980s brought acclaim as "a born poet" and appearances in the New Yorker and elsewhere. Yet her ongoing success and artistic growth exacerbated strains in her marriage and failed to stave off depressive episodes that sometimes left her non-functional. Refusing to live out the stereotype of the mad woman poet, Kenyon sought treatment and confronted her illness in her work and in public while redoubling her personal dedication to finding pleasure in every fleeting moment. Prestigious fellowships, high-profile events, residencies, and media interviews had propelled her career to new heights when leukemia cut her life short and left her husband the loving but flawed curator of her memory and legacy.
Revelatory and insightful, Jane Kenyon offers the first full-length biography of the elusive poet and the unquiet life that shaped her art.
Impacted by relatives' depression during her isolated childhood, Kenyon found poetry at college, where writers like Robert Bly encouraged her development. Her graduate school marriage to the middle-aged Hall and subsequent move to New Hampshire had an enormous impact on her life, moods, and creativity. Immersed in poetry, Kenyon wrote about women's lives, nature, death, mystical experiences, and melancholy--becoming, in her own words, an "advocate of the inner life." Her breakthrough in the 1980s brought acclaim as "a born poet" and appearances in the New Yorker and elsewhere. Yet her ongoing success and artistic growth exacerbated strains in her marriage and failed to stave off depressive episodes that sometimes left her non-functional. Refusing to live out the stereotype of the mad woman poet, Kenyon sought treatment and confronted her illness in her work and in public while redoubling her personal dedication to finding pleasure in every fleeting moment. Prestigious fellowships, high-profile events, residencies, and media interviews had propelled her career to new heights when leukemia cut her life short and left her husband the loving but flawed curator of her memory and legacy.
Revelatory and insightful, Jane Kenyon offers the first full-length biography of the elusive poet and the unquiet life that shaped her art.
Reviews / Votes
"Dana Greene's compulsively readable biography of Jane Kenyon tells the poignant story of the poet's life, her development and career as a writer, and her long marriage to and partnership with poet Donald Hall. Overshadowed for many years, in life and after her death, by her more famous husband, Kenyon emerges in Greene's narrative as a fiercely independent and gifted artist in her own right. Greene takes pains to illuminate the complex dynamics of their relationship and to showcase the quiet power and beauty of Jane Kenyon's work, liberating Kenyon from the prevailing mythos that casts her as a lesser poet and enabling readers to see her anew. Jane Kenyon is a triumph."--Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, author of Flannery O'Connor: Fiction Fired by Faith "A subtle, sensitive portrait of a 'complex, talented, and ambitious' woman. " --KirkusMore details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
15 black & white photographs
Dimensions
Height: 224 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
476 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-252-04538-7 (9780252045387)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Dana Greene is Dean Emerita of Oxford College of Emory University. Her books include Denise Levertov: A Poet's Life and Elizabeth Jennings: "The Inward War".
Content
A Word of Gratitude Prologue
Turning Inward
Enlivened by Poetry
Donald Hall, "Rockstar"
Marriage by Default
House of the Ancestors
The Community of Wilmot
The Muses
Finding Her Way
A Double Solitude
Streaming Light and Death
The Boat of Quiet Hours
Waiting
A Moment in Middle Age
The Coming Evening
Widening Vision
The Poet Laureate of Depression
Poetry Matters
The Busiest Year
Deciding to Live
Annus Horribilis
"Please Don't Die"
Falling into Light
Aftermath
Acclaim
Advocate for the Inner Life
Note on Sources Notes
Bibliography
Index
Turning Inward
Enlivened by Poetry
Donald Hall, "Rockstar"
Marriage by Default
House of the Ancestors
The Community of Wilmot
The Muses
Finding Her Way
A Double Solitude
Streaming Light and Death
The Boat of Quiet Hours
Waiting
A Moment in Middle Age
The Coming Evening
Widening Vision
The Poet Laureate of Depression
Poetry Matters
The Busiest Year
Deciding to Live
Annus Horribilis
"Please Don't Die"
Falling into Light
Aftermath
Acclaim
Advocate for the Inner Life
Note on Sources Notes
Bibliography
Index