Sure Shot And Other Poems - Softcover

Funkhouser, Erica

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0395672821 ISBN 13: 9780395672822

Publisher: Ecco, 1993

Synopsis

The first part of Erica Funkhouser's SURE SHOT comprises 26 lyric poems of surpassing tenderness. Refusing to observe her world complacently, she brings a tough precision and richness of emotion to family life and the relations of friends and lovers. The inventiveness and humor of these poems are rare in contemporary poetry. The second part of SURE SHOT consists of poetic monologues that reconsider America through the eyes of three nineteenth-century American women--Sacajawea, Louisa May Alcott, and Annie Oakley. These dramatic poems explore both the inner worlds of these three extraordinary women and their responses to the central events of the century in which they lived.

About this title

About the Author:

Erica Funkhouser is the author of four previous books of poems, including Pursuit and The Actual World. She is a lecturer in the department of writing and humanistic studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lives in Essex, Massachusetts.

From Publishers Weekly:

Funkhouser's ( Natural Affinities ) second book of poetry in 10 years is divided into two parts. In the first, 26 short poems range over a variety of subjects, including domestic life, death, love, friendship, loss--standard lyric themes; in the second are three long narratives told by the personae of Sacajawea, Louisa May Alcott, and Annie Oakley, the "sure shot" of the book's title. Narrative unifies the book; apparent lyrics are, in fact, small stories. And perhaps because there's so much story, the poems are accessible, pleasant to read, filled with details. But also because narrative dominates, all too often the moment of poetic discovery never occurs; it's subordinated to plot. The poet's father, she explains, was a man who "taught us to worship facts." She was a good pupil--facts abound. In Funkhouser's long narratives, voices exist to convey these facts; they fall short of carrying the poet's vision. The best poems (and they are good) are written mostly in the first person, and contain the urgency of personal quest. The poet here gives up fact for the power of utterance, and the song she sings rings true.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0395672821
• ISBN 13: 9780395672822
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128