Poems using less well-known stories
March 29, 2022 7:40 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for poems that use stories, legends, or events that the audience probably doesn't know well or at all. I'm trying to figure out how they balance giving the audience enough information with enriching the story and not just retelling it.
I'm looking for instances where the poem needs to tell some of the story in order to be understandable, but is using the story as a jumping off point for something else. I am also interested in stories that the audience would have some knowledge of, but that have an element that's often overlooked or misunderstood (Example: the serpent in the Garden of Eden is never said to be Satan, though lots of people think it is.).
The one example of this kind of poem I can think of is Seamus Heaney's St Kevin and the Blackbird. As much as I love it, I would not mean something like Anna Akhmatova Lot's Wife, where the audience seems to be assumed to know the entire story.
(I am purposely avoiding the word "obscure" because what's obscure to one person will be well known to another and because I don't want to imply that someone else's culture is obscure. So maybe think of this in terms of the poet showing a need to give the audience information about the story rather than assuming it's known?)
I'm looking for instances where the poem needs to tell some of the story in order to be understandable, but is using the story as a jumping off point for something else. I am also interested in stories that the audience would have some knowledge of, but that have an element that's often overlooked or misunderstood (Example: the serpent in the Garden of Eden is never said to be Satan, though lots of people think it is.).
The one example of this kind of poem I can think of is Seamus Heaney's St Kevin and the Blackbird. As much as I love it, I would not mean something like Anna Akhmatova Lot's Wife, where the audience seems to be assumed to know the entire story.
(I am purposely avoiding the word "obscure" because what's obscure to one person will be well known to another and because I don't want to imply that someone else's culture is obscure. So maybe think of this in terms of the poet showing a need to give the audience information about the story rather than assuming it's known?)
Response by poster: I appreciate the effort, but Lady of Shalott and the English rebel songs are retelling the stories, which is not what I'm looking for. So to clarify - I'm looking for poems that need to give enough of the story so that the audience will understand the poem, but aren't focused on retelling the story itself.
Maybe a good way to ask this would be what if Akhmatova were writing Lot's Wife for an audience that had no idea who Lot or his wife were? How could she provide enough of the story that the real heart of the poem is understandable? I'm looking for poems (not songs) that do something like that.
I hope this is clearer, but maybe I'm asking for something impossible.
posted by FencingGal at 10:05 AM on March 29, 2022
Maybe a good way to ask this would be what if Akhmatova were writing Lot's Wife for an audience that had no idea who Lot or his wife were? How could she provide enough of the story that the real heart of the poem is understandable? I'm looking for poems (not songs) that do something like that.
I hope this is clearer, but maybe I'm asking for something impossible.
posted by FencingGal at 10:05 AM on March 29, 2022
Leda and the Swan by Yeats does this (TW sexual assault).
And Medusa by Sylvia Plath.
posted by lesser whistling duck at 10:10 AM on March 29, 2022
And Medusa by Sylvia Plath.
posted by lesser whistling duck at 10:10 AM on March 29, 2022
Possibly Mary Barnard's Time and the White Tigress, or some of the poems in it.
(dubiously) Eliot's Waste Land, even? I'm not sure how much he expected readers to know or how much he wanted us to figure out.
posted by clew at 10:27 AM on March 29, 2022
(dubiously) Eliot's Waste Land, even? I'm not sure how much he expected readers to know or how much he wanted us to figure out.
posted by clew at 10:27 AM on March 29, 2022
Autobiography of Red is kind of a retelling, more like a fanfic, but maybe Anne Carson’s Albertine poem. Not a retelling of Proust, and it’s questionable how many people have made it through The Prisoner.
(Waiting for MeFi contrarians to tell me that it’s actually the best book in the series.)
posted by betweenthebars at 10:47 AM on March 29, 2022
(Waiting for MeFi contrarians to tell me that it’s actually the best book in the series.)
posted by betweenthebars at 10:47 AM on March 29, 2022
Best answer: The Death of Antinoüs - Mark Doty
Tam Lin Remembers the Fairy Queen - Theodora Goss
The Soldier of Mictlán - Rigoberto González
Arachne - John Hollander
Old Europe Stared at Her Breakfast - Jennifer Madden
Judith Slaying Holofernes - Sharon Tracey
Captivity - Louise Erdrich
Daedalus Invents God - Thomas Carper
The Invocation to Kali - May Sarton
Juan Lopez and John Ward - Jorge Luis Borges
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:20 PM on March 29, 2022
Tam Lin Remembers the Fairy Queen - Theodora Goss
The Soldier of Mictlán - Rigoberto González
Arachne - John Hollander
Old Europe Stared at Her Breakfast - Jennifer Madden
Judith Slaying Holofernes - Sharon Tracey
Captivity - Louise Erdrich
Daedalus Invents God - Thomas Carper
The Invocation to Kali - May Sarton
Juan Lopez and John Ward - Jorge Luis Borges
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:20 PM on March 29, 2022
I don’t have any examples just now, but you see this a lot among Anglophone poets from Asia and Africa writing poems rooted in their their own mythologies for an English speaking audience (who they assume will not necessarily be familiar with the stories).
posted by redlines at 8:28 PM on March 29, 2022
posted by redlines at 8:28 PM on March 29, 2022
Response by poster: I don’t have any examples just now, but you see this a lot among Anglophone poets from Asia and Africa writing poems rooted in their their own mythologies for an English speaking audience (who they assume will not necessarily be familiar with the stories).
I figured this had to be a thing and was hoping people would be able to point me to some of them.
posted by FencingGal at 4:42 AM on March 30, 2022
I figured this had to be a thing and was hoping people would be able to point me to some of them.
posted by FencingGal at 4:42 AM on March 30, 2022
Example: The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats.
I think there are two categories. Either the reader can just pass over it without understanding the reference, or the reader knows all about it and derives a deeper meaning.
The use of "house divided against itself " in the Gettysburg Address is self explanatory enough that knowledge of its Biblical origin not really necessary.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:50 AM on March 30, 2022
I think there are two categories. Either the reader can just pass over it without understanding the reference, or the reader knows all about it and derives a deeper meaning.
The use of "house divided against itself " in the Gettysburg Address is self explanatory enough that knowledge of its Biblical origin not really necessary.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:50 AM on March 30, 2022
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There are also two albums by the name Songs Inspired by Literature that have several of these (if songs as well as poems are okay by you). Suzanne Vega's "Calypso" is a pretty good example -- it reads as a standard-issue breakup story with some fanciful metaphor by itself, but of course reads differently if you recognize the song title and know the story from the Odyssey.
posted by humbug at 8:12 AM on March 29, 2022 [1 favorite]