Reviews for Artemis To Actaeon And Other Verse

The average rating for Artemis To Actaeon And Other Verse based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-11 00:00:00 George Lawrence This is Voigt's 4th book of poetry, published in 1992. The overwhelming sense in this book is one of loss: of children, of childhood, of elders and even of place. Unfortunately, it feels like she's still trying to keep a distance from some of this loss. The poems become a bit obscure, barely alighting on the personal pain behind them, thus losing potential power. I was impressed with the first two poems and overall enjoyed her use of language. She definitely has a sensitivity to the beauty of sounds. However, she engaged in some drawn out structures ("Variations") that largely lost me. We begin with the mythical source of song in the first poem and then a girl playing the piano in the second, so the musical trope is set up early. I increasingly find myself thinking that I need to study some music theory in order to understand what some poets are doing with their structure. I felt there were things I might have understood if I had that background. Voigt also leans heavily on origination myths, both those of the Greek pantheon and those of Christianity. Again, I felt that if I was more steeped in Christianity (I was raised atheist) some of these poems might have had more impact. It was a fast 64 page read and overall enjoyable, but I don't find myself inclined to hold onto it.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-05-22 00:00:00 Rianna Russ I liked it a lot. Some of the poems about Greek mythology went over my head since I'm not very familiar with it. The writing was simple and beautiful, and the conclusions she came to felt more like suggestions or ruminations than orders. I liked the discussion on truth and fate/mercy throughout the book.