Turtle, Swan

by Mark Doty

extremely rare,very good condition

Genres: Poetry, LGBT

74 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 1987

About the author

Mark Doty is a poet, essayist, and memoirist. He is the author of ten books of poetry, including Deep Lane and Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, which won the National Book Award. He lives in New York, New York.

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Project: This was the twentieth stop in a series of writers who I haven't read before!

General Review: I'm not big into poetry, but when I hit on a poet's work that resonates with me, I never let go.

In high school, this honor went to the usual suspects: Dickinson and Hughes. In undergrad, I had a fling with Sexton, and in grad school it was Sappho and (for some weird reason) Freneau.

Now that I'm an adult with an adult's job and an adult's stress-addled life, I have finally found the poet of the season. Mark Doty's initial collection moved me. His meditations on love and death during the AIDS/HIV epidemic resonated with my own cultural interest in this time period. His use of imagery and his turns of phrase delight me. What else can you ask for from a poet?

Further Reading (?): Of course. I've already read "Bethlehem in Broad Daylight," and I'm working on "The Sweet Machine" now. I plan on reading his memoir Heaven's Coast this summer.

[Tara Flint Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Doty's first collection, what did I think? I can hardly think at all. My mind is blown away.

[Timothy Juhl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read almost everything Mark Doty has written, but I have never read either of his first two collections (both of which sat on my shelves).

This is his first collection, published in 1987, and composed of poems likely written in the few years just ahead of those first cases of AIDS trickled into our collective gay consciousness.

I loved this collection of poems (To Cavafy, I've read in another anthology). What really made me smile was seeing Doty's early work and recognizing how he would refine his poems into the pure essence we would get in just a couple more years when AIDS would directly impact his life and poetry.

Doty is clearly in control of language, of description, even in this first collection.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narrative nostalgia and so many beautiful images. You can see in this debut book that doty is going to be Doty and be damn good at it.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Turtle, Swan” is Mark Doty’s first collection of poems. In it, Doty explores themes of: (1) childhood, memory, and nostalgia, (2) loss, the fragility of life, and the unpredictability of fate, and (3) hope and survival.

I read this book as part of a larger assignment on Mark Doty for an introductory poetry class, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Doty is able to talk about these themes in beautiful, delicate ways, while at the same time remaining interesting and avoiding cliché. Most interesting, though, is Doty’s language, which often involves simple yet elegant simile:

"Blue deepened like heaven descending."

"The mirrors were plain and dependable as laundry."

"Her skirt scraping like cicadas against the marble."

"Like rainstorms, engines of summer thunder."

In short, very relatable, simple, and beautiful.