First Advisor

Michele Glazer

Date of Publication

Spring 6-18-2014

Document Type

Closed Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Creative Writing

Department

English

Language

English

Subjects

Ontology -- Poetry, Home economics -- Poetry

DOI

10.15760/etd.2021

Physical Description

1 online resource (v, 103 pages)

Abstract

How to Avoid Huge Ships and An Index of the Matters is a collection of poems divided into two sections, "How to Avoid Huge Ships" and "An Index of the Matters." These poems inhabit a wide variety of (primarily free-verse) forms, and range in length from a few dozen words to more than eight pages. The first section, "How to Avoid Huge Ships," is itself divided into three parts, or "questions," which engage with a variety of themes, including ontology, alienation, memory and domesticity. The second section, "An Index of the Matters," is a series of linked poems that lean heavily for much of their diction and syntax on an 1855 Portuguese-English phrasebook, O Novo Guia de Conversação, em Portuguez e Inglez, em Duas Partes, by José da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino. These poems share a common situation, in that they locate themselves within a particular domestic setting--a particular life, lived in a house-shaped house--which they observe, approach and explore from all angles. They concern themselves with "indexing" the quotidian "matters" of this shared life, seeking to illuminate what hides beneath the everydayness.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

This thesis is only available to students, faculty and staff at PSU.

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/12804

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