Oneiromance: A literary tour de force
Perspective
Gregory Pratt
Issue date: 1/12/09 Section: Opinions
There are few things on this Earth that I am hesitant to comment on. Whereas friends of mine are afraid to talk about politics or religion or sex, I do not worry about taking on those subjects. Human controversies are easy. It always surprises me that more people are so unwilling to develop and express opinions and convictions. It is easy to look at a set of facts, organize them and make conclusions. Anyone can do it.
The ineffable for me comes only when a thought or expression is so beautiful and pure that I fear there is nothing I can say that will add anything to the subject, only detract from it or draw attention from it. More often than any other form of expression, poetry evokes that feeling from me. So it was with the last great book of poems I read, Oneiromance, an "epithalamnion" by midwestern writer Kathleen Rooney.
An epithalamion is a form of poetry originating in ancient Greece. As the Arsenic Lobster Poetry Journal explained in its review of Rooney's book, "an epithalamion (also spelled epithalamium) was composed and sung by a young chorus to accompany a betrothed couple in a procession from the bride's present house to her future home."
The book itself is a series of dreams featuring Rooney, her then-fiancé ("groom"), and her sister Beth and her then-fiancé ("sidekick groom"), as they become married. The poems are not remarkable for the story they tell, though the story, set in Brazil, the Midwest, Niagara Falls and 'dreamworld' is in fact remarkable. It is also remarkable that Rooney is able to keep the poems lucid in transitioning liberally between the settings.
But what is most remarkable about this book is how casually Rooney is able to stir every feeling found in relationships, from descriptions of love's compromises ("A pregnant girl walks by / in an English T-shirt, purple on white: / Why do we learn what we learn? / Sempalavras - Without Words - /a huge photo firm comes to take / my picture to run under the headline: American woman overcomes her ego") to a later verse about people who took the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel and suffered for their daredevilry, while Kathleen and her fiancé won't ("but the problem was / those guys tried it alone. Not us, though, / no way. Together forever, baby! / Screaming like a siren I slam down / next to you in the whirlpool, / at the bottom where you are / coining this epigram: / An experiment is only valid / if it can be reproduced by you. / An experience is only valid / if the opposite is true").
I can hardly describe how perfectly Rooney illustrates the quirks, joys, pleasures and anxieties of being in a serious relationship, and no excerpt or line could do the book justice. What really inspired me to write this review, however, is a desire, prompted by Oneiromance, to take a public stand for poetry. How many of you have heard it said on campus, in my experience most often by men, that poetry is worthless or, worse, that reading and writing it is a "chick" activity? I suspect too many of you have and even more believe that. I thought of that and those people as I read Oneiromance, and consider this review my intervention on their behalves. I believe that poetry is the purest expression of the human soul, and I only wish that everyone were as interested in poetry.
The ineffable for me comes only when a thought or expression is so beautiful and pure that I fear there is nothing I can say that will add anything to the subject, only detract from it or draw attention from it. More often than any other form of expression, poetry evokes that feeling from me. So it was with the last great book of poems I read, Oneiromance, an "epithalamnion" by midwestern writer Kathleen Rooney.
An epithalamion is a form of poetry originating in ancient Greece. As the Arsenic Lobster Poetry Journal explained in its review of Rooney's book, "an epithalamion (also spelled epithalamium) was composed and sung by a young chorus to accompany a betrothed couple in a procession from the bride's present house to her future home."
The book itself is a series of dreams featuring Rooney, her then-fiancé ("groom"), and her sister Beth and her then-fiancé ("sidekick groom"), as they become married. The poems are not remarkable for the story they tell, though the story, set in Brazil, the Midwest, Niagara Falls and 'dreamworld' is in fact remarkable. It is also remarkable that Rooney is able to keep the poems lucid in transitioning liberally between the settings.
But what is most remarkable about this book is how casually Rooney is able to stir every feeling found in relationships, from descriptions of love's compromises ("A pregnant girl walks by / in an English T-shirt, purple on white: / Why do we learn what we learn? / Sempalavras - Without Words - /a huge photo firm comes to take / my picture to run under the headline: American woman overcomes her ego") to a later verse about people who took the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel and suffered for their daredevilry, while Kathleen and her fiancé won't ("but the problem was / those guys tried it alone. Not us, though, / no way. Together forever, baby! / Screaming like a siren I slam down / next to you in the whirlpool, / at the bottom where you are / coining this epigram: / An experiment is only valid / if it can be reproduced by you. / An experience is only valid / if the opposite is true").
I can hardly describe how perfectly Rooney illustrates the quirks, joys, pleasures and anxieties of being in a serious relationship, and no excerpt or line could do the book justice. What really inspired me to write this review, however, is a desire, prompted by Oneiromance, to take a public stand for poetry. How many of you have heard it said on campus, in my experience most often by men, that poetry is worthless or, worse, that reading and writing it is a "chick" activity? I suspect too many of you have and even more believe that. I thought of that and those people as I read Oneiromance, and consider this review my intervention on their behalves. I believe that poetry is the purest expression of the human soul, and I only wish that everyone were as interested in poetry.
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