Melancholia

by Kristina Marie Darling

In Kristina Marie Darling's Melancholia (An Essay), a "lock of tangled hair," a necklace's "broken clasp," and a "shattered jewelry box" appear as artifacts of the heroine's loss. This stunning essay-in-poems reads as both a love story and a collection of memorable objects, the significance of each being revealed to the reader in elliptical, adeptly controlled prose narratives. Also filled with fragmented forms—including footnotes to absent texts, incomplete letters, and partial glossaries—Darling's new collection asks whether memory can be confined to the margins, in the end suggesting the unmatched intensity of mourning, melancholia, and personal transformation.

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2012

About the author

Kristina Marie Darling is the author of fifteen books, which include Melancholia (An Essay) (Ravenna Press, 2012), Petrarchan (BlazeVOX Books, 2013), and a forthcoming hybrid genre collection called Fortress (Sundress Publications, 2014). Her awards include fellowships from Yaddo, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, as well as grants from the Kittredge Fund and the Elizabeth George Foundation. She is currently working toward a Ph.D. in Poetics at S.U.N.Y.-Buffalo.

Reviews

[Mary Dockery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad, fragmented, and fully believable. This small book is big in heartache and loss. The use of definitions and footnotes leaves a lot of space for the reader to fill - it doesn't tell you what to think, but instead only gives you fragments of a relationship ending, and it's up to you to fill in those blanks.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Check out my review of this gem of a book at Rattle.
http://www.rattle.com/poetry/2013/01/...