[(Fragment of the Head of a Queen)] [Author: Cate Marvin] published on

by Cate Marvin

Cate Marvin’s new poems, their wrought music, unblinking focus, and hard-edged sensuality, are wreathed with an entirely different silence than her first collection. The brokenness and loss of the fragmented queen—seeming to rise up through centuries—is their tutelary spirit.

Genres: Poetry, Contemporary

Unknown Binding

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

Cate Marvin's first book, World's Tallest Disaster, was chosen by Robert Pinksy for the 2000 Kathryn A. Morton Prize and published by Sarabande Books in 2001. In 2002, she received the Kate Tufts Discovery Prize. Her poems have appeared in The New England Review, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, Fence, The Paris Review, The Cincinnati Review, Slate, Verse, Boston Review, and Ninth Letter. She is co-editor with poet Michael Dumanis of the anthology Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (Sarabande Books, 2006). Her second book of poems, Fragment of the Head of a Queen, was published by Sarabande in August 2007. A recent Whiting Award recipient and 2007 NYFA Gregory Millard Fellow, she teaches poetry writing in Lesley University's low-residency MFA program and is an associate professor in creative writing at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York.

Reviews

[Juliet · Rating 4 out of 5]

update: I'm thinking this could have been edited into a slimmer and more powerful collection, because I feel like some of the poems were powerful and unique whereas others were just mediocre and not so unique.

Overall, 3 3/4 stars.

***

Macabre in a creepily sing songy manner.

At first I was distracted by what seemed like an excess of rhyme, but once I allowed myself to get immersed into the rhythm and flow of these pieces, they started to work quite well for me.

Much of it is strangely almost kinkily erotic. As in:

I am like a table
that eats its own legs off
because it's fallen
in love with the floor.

My frantic hand can't find where my leg
went. You can play the tourniquet. A tree
with white limbs will grow here someday.

Or maybe a pup tent
that's collapsed in on itself,
it so loves the sleep
of men sleeping beneath it.

The reason why women dislike war movies
may have something to do with why men hate
romantic comedies: they are both about war.

Perhaps I should
live in a pig's trough.
There, I'd be wanted.
There, I'd be tasted.

[Talia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Witty, no pretensions, and incredibly well-written.

[hh · Rating 4 out of 5]

cate marvin will fuck your shit up if you have the guts to go there.

[Leanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been sitting on my shelf for awhile. I remember reading the review in PW years ago and thinking it sounded right up my alley! About time I read it.

I really admire the nakedness of the emotion--Marvin isn't afraid to be angry, bitter, jealous, etc. These are poems that have something to say--mostly, I think, about a vile man and breaking up with him--and that is something that is too rare these days! Marvin has a real dexterity with image and often a gothic sort of moodiness. She has a flair for rhyme, and uses it in surprising ways (such as in long prose lines). My favorite poems were "All My Wives" and the title poem. These poems reminded me of Brenda Shaugnessy's poetry. I tend to like sexy dark image-driven poems, which both Shaugnessy and Marvin do well, so that makes sense!

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four and half stars, if I could. I don't remember how I heard about Cate Marvin, but wish it had been sooner. Her imagery focuses a lot on colors (blue is frequently mentioned but not to the point of redundancy), houses, and bodies (with the last two, particularly focusing on their construction and destruction) to discuss, among other things, regret, desire, resilience, mourning, and ambivalence. The themes continue throughout, and going from one poem to the next feels almost like reading loosely sequential vignettes in a short story. Definite favorites: "Lying My Head Off," "A Brief Attachment," "Teens Love Horse Dick," "Nyquil," and "My Black Address."

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this was a really great book, full of strong poems built out of, duh, compelling images and really strong, charged, and wonderful language.

There were times when I wish we got away from the persona of the poet, as aggrieved and angry young woman, but really, it's a minor quibble, and where that persona leads these poems, and what the poems find there, is more than rich enough to make up for it.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marvin's style is a lot like many of the poets she included when she co-edited "Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century." Although many of the poems have imagistic unity, some are what I call "kitchen-sink" poems: they bring in anything and everything possible as images, focusing on moving by association and playing with sound.

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book often feels like a herd of cattle running over your chest. And each time it seems like there might be a chance to sit up, one more comes by and pushes you right back into the earth. The energy is constant, constant and remorseless. And that is the pleasure. Each of Marvin's images is fresh and intense and hateful. And yet there is still room to care for the speaker.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cate Marvin is a little on the dark side with her poetry. I would not say her main focus is Love, but alot of the poems aim at that subject. I have been on a poetry trip lately and Cate Marvin definately fuled my hunger.

Favorites
-Lines for a Mentor
-Cloud Elegy
-Scenes from the Battle of Us
-Teens Love Horse Dick
-Muckraker
-Alibi Poem
-Lying My Head Off
-A Brief Attachment
-NyQuil

[Mary Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ohmygod...it's the best book of poems in years.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a love/hate relationship with Ms. Marvin. I think I could do without the excessive relationship poems. Maybe she tries to get away with too much? But, man, does she have a handle on language.

[Charmi · Rating 3 out of 5]

If it had been my style, I would have given it a 5. But it wasn't. Maybe I'll grow into it. Or not. I think if I came back to Marvin, it would be in the form of erasure.

[Leah Iannone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich, complex poems. I love when they occasionally tie into one another, too.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

She blows my effing MIND.

[W. Benson Cartwright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, witty, devastating.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This. Book.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the title, love the cover. I found this collection a bit more abstract and harder to wrap my head around than the other poetry I've read, but overall enjoyed the collection very much. It's held together by a frank narrative voice dripping with rage, desperation, violence, and desire.

My favorite poems were "Your Childhood," "Practically an Orphan," and "Catatonia," with honorable mentions to "Cloud Elegy," "Gaslight," "Lying My Head Off," "Fragment of the Head of a Queen," "A Brief Attachment," "The Unfortunates," "Stone Fruit," "A Fainting Couch," and "Flood Museum."

From "Your Childhood"

...I picked it up hitchhiking: its mouth tugged on
a joint as it bragged that it wanted you dead. It got off
wherever I planned to head, said anywhere was where
it planned to end up....

Your childhood prying open a can, your childhood
waking you because it's afraid of the dark. For years.
Of the yellowing polar bear at that dank zoo that will
not stop banging its head against the concrete floe of
its habitat, you alone know the briny depths of its woe.

From "Practically An Orphan"
This is not about them, but what happens to them.
Pick a brick, a plastic bag, a gun, or any instrument
heavy with intent, since you are heavy in intent on
forgetting them. This is not about their good faces,
or about how it will happen while they sleep. ...

Gravity kills, not us. How else can a hammer fall?
There's more than one way to cut a person off mid
speech. Open the refrigerator of the heart and sniff--
something gone bad in the blood....

From "Catatonia"
If I see him again, how shall I know him? Mouth first
a jewel, then a jeweled scabbard, his knife then running
smooth against my throat. Spray of wisteria, spray of
the slashed jugular petaling out its roses along the walk.

....

...Shall I replaced it with the head
of a horse, make myself a centaur in reverse? Shall I call
the fire department, ask them to ladder it down? Must
I watch the twigs combing my black hair until the starts
are thumbed shut by dawn and my startled eyes close?

[Bethany Fisher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would say this is more of a 2.5 stars, because it might just be me. I enjoyed some poems from this, finding them both interesting and important, but others I just didn't understand or felt as though they were somewhat overwritten?

I could be wrong, just some parts seemed to me quite cluttered and I would try to figure it out but could not always do so entirely, and I'm not the type of person who would look up words when reading in my spare time, as it would make it more of a chore for me. Maybe for more academically inclined people, or for those wishing to thoroughly study what they read (which sometimes I will but not forcefully) I think this could be good. I don't know, maybe I just chose the wrong day to read this, but it just seemed to drag on and quite repetitive and I just ended up bored honestly. I found myself only liking and appreciating half, so for me it's not bad but probably wouldn't read again.

[madeline blair · Rating 2 out of 5]

purchased this collection mostly to have a physical copy of the poem 'robotripping.' i was excited to see how her other work fared, but ultimately i connected with very little else ('a brief attachment' and 'stone fruit' were two others i did enjoy). many of the poems felt disjointed in community with one another in the collection and yet much of the imagery felt repetitive across poems, and the abstraction in language is clever but ultimately i felt myself glossing over a lot. several poems written in large stanza chunks that felt exhausting to read. there is a lot of humanity and darkness and wit across many of these poems that did resonate at times, but overall there is only a handful here that i bit onto

[Nicole Perkins · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have really been enjoying much of the 'newer' poetry that I have been reading (i.e., not the classics! *John Keats 4-evaar!*) but I could not get into this one. Maybe it was too abstract, maybe I just could not identify with the author's intent as much as I could with Rupi Kaur and Amanda Lovelace. Don't take my rating for it, though; other readers loved this.

[Avery Ferin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cate Marvin's voice is impeccably clear from the start, even the cover of this collection speaks volumes. The poems are surreal, visceral, and otherworldly as they dissect the innermost layers of love, loss, and the messes they can make.

[armghan ahmad · Rating 5 out of 5]

marvin will take your angst and your grief and your faith and your doubt and shape it into a paper airplane, lighting it on fire as she throws it overhead. eventually - there is nothing save for ash. but you know that you have witnessed something beautiful

[Keeley Pears · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this collection of poems. I found them to be a struggle to read and somewhat far fetched at points. I’m sorry but I just did not enjoy them. Perhaps I’m not the intended audience and therefore my understanding is faltered, but these poems were personally not for me.

[Maria Hiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

What i think about this book is that i wish i could forget it so i could experience the magic that is reading each poem for the first time

[Patricia Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Consistency of voice, but can I define the voice? There are so many declarative sentences, many of them end-stopped. The result is a volume that feels disengaged at times, for me. Which is one way to do it (what I’m saying is that I’m not sure it’s a bad thing). Just that the poems take many associative leaps. And while I admire that, I wanted a few more literal leaps.

Some of my favorite moments:

“Wear your lover’s indiscretions like stickpins in your apple hat.”

“I tell them my heart is huge and its doors are small.”

“You’re as prim as a closed umbrella.”

“If seasons undo me, you are my season.”

“When I say my wives are cages, I don’t mean I’m a bird.”

“Yellowed rinds shucked from oranges.”

“Knock down the tree your head is in.”

[Zelda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was continually surprised by the language in these poems. And impressed by Marvin's ability to continue to interest me with poem after poem of the same failed relationship (probably because i've been in so many myself!) anyway... by the end my mind started to wander a bit and this could have been my sleep deprivation rather than her writing, but I definitely look forward to reading more by her.

[Kate Birgel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not as accessible as World's Tallest Disaster as many allusions require effort on the part of the reader.
I have yet to form my opinion of her latest poems. After rereading, I hold to my former statement pertaining to accessibility.

[Dinah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this more when I read it several years ago, somehow. Perhaps it's a function of being less tortured myself, rather than any fault in the poetry. I do love how animate the world of Cate Marvin's poetry is, though - all slow moving beasts and rustling trash.

[Cassa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read for class; I recall the poem endings were weak, but not much else.