Catharine Savage Brosman's Books

Journeying from Canyon de Chelly

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Journeying from Canyon de Chelly

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

The human mind shapes disparate landscapes to its own contours in this rich and varied collection of poems by Catharine Savage Brosman. The canyon country of the Southwest, parts of Virginia, the Gulf Coast, France, and the Caribbean figure prominently in the poet’s meditations on the alchemy that occurs in that groove where the mind meets the world. Brosman uses a variety of verse forms to explore her theme, which is the triumph of human perspective. Her technical mastery and virtuosity support a wisdom that is as distilled as the desert air. The title poem opens the collection and introduces the theme: What was proposed in ecstasies of clouds and later, vast illuminations only seems transcendent, trumpeting glory; the light consumes itself, without desire. At dusk, images flush up on radiant wings, and fill the air with cries from distant flights. Throughout the volume, the poet ponders the connections between action and love, between present and past, between people and places. She displays an extraordinary sensitivity to landscapes and to the rituals of place, and in “Peaches”: This fruit preserved in husbanding happiness for future weeks; something of autumn is already in their ripening, the reconciliation of reason and love. All of the poems speak to the search for a language by which to apprehend the experience of the world. In some, this search is more overt, as in “Crossing to Evian”: . . . Later, friends will ask us for accounts, supposing that we bring back something neat and telling, like a photograph; but have you tried to fit a glimpse of order, knowing and perfected in its resplendent gaze, into the journey’s darkness, the moving contours of the mind? Brosman’s voice is very much her own and one that has a great deal to say in this extraordinary work.

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807116270

ISBN 13

9780807116272

The Muscled Truce

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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The Muscled Truce

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

In this book of poems, Catharine Savage Brosman employs a wide array of forms and styles to address the problem of being and the complexity of relationships.

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LSU Press

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ISBN 10

0807128899

ISBN 13

9780807128893

A Memory of Manaus

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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A Memory of Manaus

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

Catharine Savage Brosman's singular and authoritative voice, familiar to poetry readers in the South since the late 1960s, is heard again as she brings to scenes and topics, both new and familiar, her broad range of craftsmanship and styles, using, as one critic wrote, "metaphors brilliantly fitted in detail to the moods and workings of the human heart and mind." Her poetic practice shows how closely the art of verse can, and must, be connected to human experience, the very feel of which comes through in the poems here. The book features travel poems from four continents, rhymed lyrics on small or expansive topics, narratives in blank verse (concerning El Cid, Swift, Dickens, Charles Dodgson, Saint-Exup�ry, and two women writers), five translations from Baudelaire (among the least-known poems), and satires concerning painting and publishing. Recurring themes include "great age" and death, friendship, piano playing, flowers and gardens, and the desert. Whatever the setting and topic-exotic cities, a Rocky Mountain cabin, Breton dolmens, dinner by the water, a nasty fall, a flowering vine-readers will recognize their truth, feeling both little flickers of sensation and the deep currents of love and suffering. The collection closes with a series of eight rhymed poems inspired by illuminations from The Hours of Catherine of Cleves, presenting saints and martyrs, with their iconographic paraphernalia. Retrospectively, this final series sheds on the preceding poems its thematic lighting, combining tones of sorrow, sacrifice, charity, and joy. The ensemble creates what David R. Slavitt identified in an earlier volume by Brosman as "the morality of vision.

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Page Count

277

Published Date

ISBN 10

0881466301

ISBN 13

9780881466300

Mississippi Poets

A Literary Guide

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Mississippi Poets

A Literary Guide

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

Mississippi has produced outstanding writers in numbers far out of proportion to its population. Their contributions to American literature, including poetry, rank as enormous. Mississippi Poets: A Literary Guide showcases forty-seven poets associated with the state and assesses their work with the aim of appreciating it and its place in today’s culture. In Mississippi, the importance of poetry can no longer be doubted. It partakes, as Faulkner wrote, of the broad aim of all literature: “to uplift man’s heart.” In Mississippi Poets, author Catharine Savage Brosman introduces readers to the poets themselves, stressing their versatility and diversity. She describes their subject matter and forms, their books, and particularly representative or striking poems. Of broad interest and easy to consult, this book is both a source of information and a showcase. It highlights the organic connection between poetry by Mississippians and the indigenous music genres of the region, blues and jazz. No other state has produced such abundant and impressive poetry connected to these essential American forms. Brosman profiles and assesses poets from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Grounds for selection include connections between the poets and the state; the excellence and abundance of their work; its critical reception; and both local and national standing. Natives of Mississippi and others who have resided here draw equal consideration. As C. Liegh McInnis observed, “You do not have to be born in Mississippi to be a Mississippi writer. . . . If what happens in Mississippi has an immediate and definite effect on your work, you are a Mississippi writer.”

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274

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1496829085

ISBN 13

9781496829085

Passages

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Passages

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

In Passages, Catharine Savage Brosman presents journeys between the world and spirit, journeys that share an axis of yearning for a realm as pure as desire. Brosman refracts through metrical virtuosity, historical imagination, and a vision like cleansing light a world alive with coruscating color and sensual textures. Whether rendering a speaker's spiritual communion with Mozart, the febrile longings of a woman caught in adultery in French Algeria, or a love letter by Madame d'Epinay (deftly couched in the metrics and tropes of eighteenth-century France), Brosman moves effortlessly from the broodingly intimate perspectives of other eyes, other souls, to the most abstract of aesthetic meditations. These are poems of wit and passion, poems that beg to be read and reread, and this remarkable collection reminds us again and again of the passages that open into the lives of our imagination.

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807120499

ISBN 13

9780807120491

Louisiana Creole Literature

A Historical Study

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Louisiana Creole Literature

A Historical Study

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

Louisiana Creole Literature is a broad-ranging critical reading of belles lettres—in both French and English—connected to and generally produced by the distinctive Louisiana Creole peoples, chiefly in the southeastern part of the state. The book covers primarily the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the flourishing period during which the term Creole had broad and contested cultural reference in Louisiana. The study consists in part of literary history and biography. When available and appropriate, each discussion—arranged chronologically—provides pertinent personal information on authors, as well as publishing facts. Readers will find also summaries and evaluation of key texts, some virtually unknown, others of difficult access. Brosman illuminates the biographies and works of Kate Chopin, Lafcadio Hearn, George Washington Cable, Grace King, and Adolphe Duhart, among others. In addition, she challenges views that appear to be skewed regarding canon formation. The book places emphasis on poetry and fiction, reaching from early nineteenth-century writing through the twentieth century to selected works by poets still writing in the early twenty-first century. A few plays are treated also, especially by Victor Séjour. Louisiana Creole Literature examines at length the writings of important Francophone figures, and certain Anglophone novelists likewise receive extended treatment. Since much of nineteenth-century Louisiana literature was transnational, the book considers Creole-based works which appeared in Paris as well as those published locally.

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421

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1628469536

ISBN 13

9781628469530

Places in Mind

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Places in Mind

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

“On this familiar planet all is strange,” writes Catharine Savage Brosman, and with that she takes her reader on an eye- and mind-opening journey that starts, cocktail in hand, at the Columns Hotel veranda on New Orleans’ St. Charles Avenue and flies to such memorable and varied sites as the rainy bank of London’s Thames, an English greengrocer’s winter produce bin, an abbey on the Norman plain, an island under palms where “the flames of bougainvillaea and the hibiscus burn magenta,” and across the Utah line. “Remember, though,” the poet warns, “a manual for tourists this is not— / adventures in the mind are what you’ve got.” And the mind’s eye that refracts these vivid places is unmistakably Brosman’s, richly allusive, deeply meditative, and ranging widely. Travel’s unsettling sensation of being in one place, having just left another, and going somewhere else gives way, Brosman discovers, to the stimulus to savor stillness: “stepping out alone / . . . I am in a green / and golden masterpiece; and all the rest / just falls away.” Both cerebral and sensuous—boulevards by Caillebotte, a platter by Chardin, an old Chilean disk of Neruda declaiming in inimitable voice, unearthly notes from Ravel’s tomb, Brussels sprouts touched with Cézanne blue—Brosman’s poems cause time, thought, and subject to luster and converge. In language always controlled and precise, Places in Mind offers readers “on this hurtling missile” of modern pace “days of sweet, slow syrup,” “a silken, seamless afternoon.” Whether light ( “an airplane seat in tourist class— / I have before me this: a plastic plate”), heartrending (“those carrying sacks / in the street, wearing cracked shoes and faces”), or seductive (the olive that “plump, savory, and salubrious . . . could wait / no longer to be tasted”), Brosman’s poems delight in their imaginative brilliance.

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807125474

ISBN 13

9780807125472

Under the Pergola

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Under the Pergola

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

Always spirited and elegant, by turns witty and meditative, Catharine Savage Brosman's Under the Pergola contemplates Louisiana, past and present, before traveling a broader path that crosses Colorado landscapes and the island of Sicily. Brosman's collection reflects on the recent "light years" of the poet's life -- which she characterizes as "silken ? slipping smoothly off" like a gown.

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807138843

ISBN 13

9780807138847

Southwestern Women Writers and the Vision of Goodness

Mary Austin, Willa Cather, Laura Adams Armer, Peggy Pond Church and Alice Marriott

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Southwestern Women Writers and the Vision of Goodness

Mary Austin, Willa Cather, Laura Adams Armer, Peggy Pond Church and Alice Marriott

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

This literary history focuses on five women writers--Mary Austin, Willa Cather, Laura Adams Armer, Peggy Pond Church and Alice Marriott--whose work appeared from around 1900 through the 1980s. All came from or lived and worked in California, Arizona, New Mexico or Oklahoma. The book situates them in their time and place and examines their interactions with landscapes, people, art and history. Their interest in fine arts and native arts and crafts is stressed, as well as their concern for the environment.

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233

Publisher

McFarland

Published Date

ISBN 10

1476666474

ISBN 13

9781476666471

Louisiana Poets

A Literary Guide

By: Catharine Savage Brosman,Olivia McNeely Pass

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Louisiana Poets

A Literary Guide

By: Catharine Savage Brosman,Olivia McNeely Pass

Louisiana has long been recognized for its production of talented writers, and its poets in particular have shined. From the early poetry of the state to the work crafted in the present day, Louisiana has nurtured and exported a rich and diverse poetic tradition. In Louisiana Poets: A Literary Guide authors Catharine Savage Brosman and Olivia McNeely Pass assess the achievements of Louisiana poets from the past hundred years who, Brosman and Pass assert, deserve both public notice and careful critical examination. Louisiana Poets presents the careers and works of writers whose verse is closely connected to the peoples, history, and landscapes of Louisiana or whose upbringing or artistic development occurred in the state. Brosman and Pass chose poets based on the scope, abundance, and excellence of their work; their critical reception; and the local and national standing of the writer and work. The book treats a wide range of forty poets—from national bestsellers to local celebrities—detailing their histories and output. Intended to be of broad interest and easy to consult, Louisiana Poets showcases the corpus of Louisiana poetry alongside its current profile. Brosman and Pass have created a guide that provides a way for readers to discover, savor, and celebrate poets who have been inspired in and by the Pelican State.

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258

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1496822137

ISBN 13

9781496822130

Southwestern Women Writers and the Vision of Goodness

Mary Austin, Willa Cather, Laura Adams Armer, Peggy Pond Church and Alice Marriott

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Southwestern Women Writers and the Vision of Goodness

Mary Austin, Willa Cather, Laura Adams Armer, Peggy Pond Church and Alice Marriott

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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233

Publisher

McFarland

Published Date

ISBN 10

1476666474

ISBN 13

9781476666471

Mississippi Poets

A Literary Guide

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Mississippi Poets

A Literary Guide

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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254

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Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1496829069

ISBN 13

9781496829061

Passages

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Passages

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807120499

ISBN 13

9780807120491

Places in Mind

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Places in Mind

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

On this familiar planet all is strange, writes Catherine Savage Brosman, and so begins an eye and mind-opening journey. Brosman's poems take the reader from a veranda at the Columns hotel on New Orleans' St. Charles Avenue to such varied sites as the rainy banks of the Thames, a greengrocer's winter produce bin, an Abbey on the Norman plain, and a seat under tropical palm trees.

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807125466

ISBN 13

9780807125465

Chained Tree, Chained Owls: Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Chained Tree, Chained Owls: Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

Catharine Savage Brosman, Emerita Professor of French of Tulane University, has published nearly thirty books of poetry, fiction, and literary scholarship. This is her 12th book of verse . It returns freshly to her familiar territory of New Orleans, the Southwest, France, and the despoiling of our contemporary culture. Of contemporary American poets, only Catharine Savage Brosman possesses the wit, erudition, and technical skills to pull off this tour de force, a combination lyrical travelogue and bracing, biting account of our moral and artistic decline. Her work holds a firm place in the tradition of Swift, Pope, and Larkin. -Randall Ivey, University of South Carolina-Union, author of A New England Romance and Other Southern StoriesIt is all simply gorgeous, jaw-droppingly beautiful work. . . . You are unsurpassed in your geological descriptions among all poetry written in English. -Jennifer Reeser, author of Indigenous and Sonnets from the Dark Lady and Other Poems. Catharine Savage Brosman, one of the few writers in the history of literature to reach the greatest heights of excellence in both poetry and fiction, has given us a collection of what she dubs quintains, five-line poems in iambic pentameter rhymed ababa. Her mastery of English prosody is complete, and each poem engraves itself on the reader's memory with its perfectly crafted diction. Her aesthetic sensibility, her ability to experience the essence of the magic in towers (real and fictional) and especially cathedrals, is at the highest spiritual pitch. She also shows again that she is one of our finest evocateurs of a remarkable range of landscape in words. 'Love beauty, mortals, while you can,' ends one quintain, and Brosman is one of those keeping it alive for us in these latter days. -Jonathan Chaves, Professor of Chinese Literature, The George Washington University; poet and translator of Cloud Gate Song: The Verse of Tang Poet Zhang Ji and other works.

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Green Altar Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1947660322

ISBN 13

9781947660328

Louisiana Creole Literature

A Historical Study

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Louisiana Creole Literature

A Historical Study

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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421

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1628469536

ISBN 13

9781628469530

Range of Light

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Range of Light

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

This new collection of lyrical and narrative poems is centered on the American west and southwest, from Wyoming to New Mexico to California. Brosman explores three different types of ranges here: mountain ranges, grazing ranges, and the scope and spectrum of light. Most of the poems focus on nature, especially landscapes and trees. However, there are also poems inspired by historical figures such as the explorer, Fremont. Brosman varies forms throughout throughout the collection from ragged-edged free verse poems to poems of rhymed quatrains in iambic pentameter. This transcendental collection is both serious and at times playful. Overall, it is a meditation on the natural beauty and resilience of America.

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807135801

ISBN 13

9780807135808

Under the Pergola

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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Under the Pergola

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

Always spirited and elegant, by turns witty and meditative, Catharine Savage Brosman's Under the Pergola contemplates Louisiana, past and present, before traveling a broader path that crosses Colorado landscapes and the island of Sicily. In her eighth collection of poems, Brosman evokes the Pelican State's trees, birds, rivers, swamps, bayous, New Orleans scenes, historic houses, and colorful characters. She also recounts, in free verse, formal verse, and one prose poem, the "misdeeds of Katrina" as she and others experienced them. Other poems range widely, from reflections on writers Samuel Johnson, Paul Claudel, André Malraux, and James Dickey to quiet meditations on the American West, Odysseus, fruits and vegetables, and the recent "light years" of the poet's life -- which she characterizes as "silken... slipping smoothly off" like a gown.

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LSU Press

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ISBN 10

0807138800

ISBN 13

9780807138809

The Muscled Truce

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

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The Muscled Truce

Poems

By: Catharine Savage Brosman

In her fifth full-length collection, poet Catharine Savage Brosman gracefully employs a wide array of forms and styles to address the ontological question—the problem of being, including the “momentary flame” of human life—and the complexity of relationships with others and with oneself. The first section, “A Distant Shore,” introduces characters chronologically from King Minos to D. H. Lawrence—mythological, historical, or anonymous travelers of one kind or another—who are given voice through Brosman’s craft in seamless transitions among free verse, blank verse, and rhyme. In the second part, “The Muscled Truce,” twelve short poems in rhymed iambic tetrameter describe activities, from beekeeping and gardening to skating and winegrowing, as ways of encountering the world, acting on it, and meeting its demands. The book closes with “A Cosmic Comedy,” in which works about contemporary, often mundane situations reinforce earlier metaphysical concerns of nature, religion, aging, and death. At turns witty and weighty, personal and universal, The Muscled Truce bears Brosman’s indelible emotional imprint and reveals her amazing technical flexibility, continuing her tradition of writing “poetry that might legitimately be assigned a vintage” (Baton Rouge Advocate).

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