Masters Theses
Date of Award
12-1998
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Major
English
Major Professor
Arthur Smith
Committee Members
Marilyn Kallet, Edward Bratton
Abstract
It is my sincere desire that in writing these poems I have learned how better to hone the poetic voice, the speaking of the muse—or muses—without whom we as curtists would have no function. I think one thing that characterizes the poems in this book is an attention to sensual details, which, to me, are inextricably connected to who we are as humans. In essence, the spirit records experience through the details of the body's interactions. Hot rain puddling in the summer dirt, for instance, may transport us back to the occasion of that sense, as it did for me in the poem "Blues," and call forth a similar emotional response. However, on a larger scale, what I experienced in the writing of these poems was a quest for newness, for reinvention—in relationships, in language, in the poems themselves. Whether I attained that quest or not, I hope that visible in the poems is the energy and passion involved in the writing process.
Recommended Citation
Waller, Stacy Jones, "Rivers of urgent breath. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1998.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/10424