Thomas and Beulah [SIGNED FIRST] - Hardcover

Rita Dove

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0887480209 ISBN 13: 9780887480201

Publisher: Carnegie-Mellon University, 1986

Synopsis

Book by Dove, Rita

About this title

Review

The poems in this unusual book tell a story, forming a narrative almost like a realistic novel. Read in sequence as intended, they tell of the lives of a married black couple (not unlike Dove's own grandparents) from the early part of the century until their deaths in the 1960s, a period that spans the great migration of blacks from rural south to urban north. But this is merely the social backdrop to the story of a marriage. Two separate sequences offer two views of the couple's lives: the first, "Mandolin," consists of 23 poems giving Thomas's side, and "Canary in Bloom" gives Beulah's in 21 poems. Together they paint a detailed, poetically dense portrait of two lives in all their frailty, dignity and complexity. The collection was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1987.

Review

Aircraft
Anniversary
Aurora Borealis
The Charm
Company
Compendium
Courtship
Courtship, Diligence
Daystar
Definition In The Face Of Unnamed Fury
Dusting
The Event
Gospel
The Great Palaces Of Versailles
Headdress
A Hill Of Beans
Jiving
Lightin' Blues
Magic
Motherhood
Nightmare
Nothing Down
Obedience
One Volume Missing
The Oriental Ballerina
Pomade
Promises
Recovery
Refrain
Roast Possum
The Satisfaction Coal Company
Straw Hat
The Stroke
Sunday Greens
Taking In Wash
Thomas At The Wheel
Under The Viaduct, 1932
Variation On Gaining A Son
Variation On Guilt
Variation On Pain
Weathering Out
Wingfoot Lake
The Zeppelin Factory
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Edition details

• Publisher: Carnegie-Mellon University
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0887480209
• ISBN 13: 9780887480201
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 79