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End of the Sentimental Journey
"Sarah Vap's End of The Sentimental Journey is a beautiful collection of the most critically astute filth I've ever read. With humor, stunning insight, and shimmering vulgarity Vap invents a fresh means of poetic critique in the poem itself. What she unveils for us is our own culpability in the gendered policing of contemporary poetry. I, for one, feel stimulated at being called out. I love this book." -Dawn Lundy Martin
- GenresPoetry
71 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2012
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About the author
Sarah Vap
13 books41 followersSarah Vap is the author of American Spikenard, winner of the 2006 Iowa Poetry Prize, and Dummy Fire, winner of the 2006 Saturnalia Poetry Prize.
She is Poetry Editor at the online journal 42 Opus, and lives on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.
She is Poetry Editor at the online journal 42 Opus, and lives on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 28, 2013
Manual for a Mystery
A review of Sarah Vap’s poem “End of the sentimental journey”
Sarah Vap names “End of the sentimental journey” a mystery poem, and curiously suspicious after reading this provocative work, I was led to the Online Etymology Dictionary to investigate why she would state so. OED defines Mystery as “handicraft, trade, art” or "service, occupation, office, ministry”, and even "mastery". At first, disarmed by the sexual vulgarity of clingfilm, and allusions to pigs and alligators, how foolish I now feel in retrospect. Vap is a poet who understands the mechanics of poetry. She displays technical precision in multiple forms of meter, without overindulgence, showiness or waste. She is also fully conscious of the anxieties, chest-tightening tensions and exhilarations that affect the creative process which is often rooted in contradictions, repetitions, definitions and re-definitions of words. “This entire poem”, explains Vap, “is my effort to monitor the ways in which certain people use certain words, after all”. The poem, like “Helpful guidelines [ ] for contemporary poetry”, with “Clue” headings and “Variations” sub-headings, fluctuates along a continuum of definitions (words are substituted, interchangeable, simply replaced or re-defined, though all true) of what constitutes Difficult and Easy, Intimacy and Accessibility, and of course Sentimentality which Vap claims: “is Not Sexy” and “much worse than difficult!!” Vap employs lyrical repetition both in poetic form and thematically. Sentimentality grows in gendered repugnance and to where “Cipher” turns “fuck”, and concludes in “cunt”.
“Sentimental, it seems, across the ancient history of the world, begins with to touch emotion, gets wet, gets honkey, turns sick, gets sicker, gets maggot-infected, turns difficult, gets wetter, starts to suck, gets sticky, still wet, now lacking, now sobbing, now crying, and then ends on the huge entry for cunt:
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.”
Mystery is also a “"secret rite or doctrine," "one who has been initiated," "to close, shut"; perhaps referring to the lips (in secrecy) or to the eyes (only initiates were allowed to see the sacred rites)”. As reader-participant, I feel “secretly enlightened” and “secretly central” to Vap’s exploring the sex-drive of poetry; reaching exhilarated and exhausted for the illusive G-spot (“G” for good in terms of technique and effectiveness) of the poem. "My, holy fucking shit” exclaims Vap (and myself as female reader in tune) “it's right there in the etymology of cunt - my End of the Sentimental Journey". This book is like aftersex, where the reader lies in the arms of the poem, heart-rate reclaiming its rhythm from the flux and flurry of excitement or obscenity, or both, only now receptive to its message.
A review of Sarah Vap’s poem “End of the sentimental journey”
Sarah Vap names “End of the sentimental journey” a mystery poem, and curiously suspicious after reading this provocative work, I was led to the Online Etymology Dictionary to investigate why she would state so. OED defines Mystery as “handicraft, trade, art” or "service, occupation, office, ministry”, and even "mastery". At first, disarmed by the sexual vulgarity of clingfilm, and allusions to pigs and alligators, how foolish I now feel in retrospect. Vap is a poet who understands the mechanics of poetry. She displays technical precision in multiple forms of meter, without overindulgence, showiness or waste. She is also fully conscious of the anxieties, chest-tightening tensions and exhilarations that affect the creative process which is often rooted in contradictions, repetitions, definitions and re-definitions of words. “This entire poem”, explains Vap, “is my effort to monitor the ways in which certain people use certain words, after all”. The poem, like “Helpful guidelines [ ] for contemporary poetry”, with “Clue” headings and “Variations” sub-headings, fluctuates along a continuum of definitions (words are substituted, interchangeable, simply replaced or re-defined, though all true) of what constitutes Difficult and Easy, Intimacy and Accessibility, and of course Sentimentality which Vap claims: “is Not Sexy” and “much worse than difficult!!” Vap employs lyrical repetition both in poetic form and thematically. Sentimentality grows in gendered repugnance and to where “Cipher” turns “fuck”, and concludes in “cunt”.
“Sentimental, it seems, across the ancient history of the world, begins with to touch emotion, gets wet, gets honkey, turns sick, gets sicker, gets maggot-infected, turns difficult, gets wetter, starts to suck, gets sticky, still wet, now lacking, now sobbing, now crying, and then ends on the huge entry for cunt:
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.”
Mystery is also a “"secret rite or doctrine," "one who has been initiated," "to close, shut"; perhaps referring to the lips (in secrecy) or to the eyes (only initiates were allowed to see the sacred rites)”. As reader-participant, I feel “secretly enlightened” and “secretly central” to Vap’s exploring the sex-drive of poetry; reaching exhilarated and exhausted for the illusive G-spot (“G” for good in terms of technique and effectiveness) of the poem. "My, holy fucking shit” exclaims Vap (and myself as female reader in tune) “it's right there in the etymology of cunt - my End of the Sentimental Journey". This book is like aftersex, where the reader lies in the arms of the poem, heart-rate reclaiming its rhythm from the flux and flurry of excitement or obscenity, or both, only now receptive to its message.
February 5, 2014
This book made a mess in my head, but I'm glad to have it. I will continue to wonder about and question this text. Read it, so we can discuss.
May 12, 2013
Some day I will gather up my slobbery little thoughts off the floor and react coherently to this book, but I'm pretty sure Sarah Vap was incredibly successful (in this reader anyway) in getting all kinds of reactions, both emotional and intellectual. My brain is all messy and smattered on the Valvoline floor.
But what I am against is only one container ever. / Or a bunch of containers but a rule that says everyone can only use one container. (44)
But what I am against is only one container ever. / Or a bunch of containers but a rule that says everyone can only use one container. (44)
September 9, 2014
This book is amazing! One of the most intriguing books on poetry I've read in a long time. I love the way it unfolds and complicates, complicates. Raises questions about difficulty and gender I've been looking for the words to talk about. Great for conversation. I got a little bogged down in the etymology sections, but that is also how we get the title, which I love. Hope to reread soon.
May 28, 2014
Wow! If I was a poetry teacher, I'd assign this book to all my students. What a great entry into pondering "difficulty" in poetry and language.
January 25, 2023
I read this like almost ten years ago at this point (WTF???? That can’t be right) and it’s even more brilliant than I remembered. I also feel like I have like still been living out the clever whimsical way in which Vap picks apart these false dichotomies ever since and just wow. This is one of those books that reminds you of how much brilliance is hidden away in little books that aren’t popular and don’t have a single copy in your whole library consortium etc but are so so worth their (short!) read’s worth in gold. If you love poetry language or thinking about the little traps people make up & fall into regarding how and why we judge what we read (and who & how we experience) pls read asap
Read
November 29, 2025‘I have had a long theory on very personal first-languages that each of us has uniquely... which we spend our lives both translating into and refusing, to some degree or another, (the nonexistent) Standard American English.’
April 20, 2024
I love that this book is a mystery poem, and I would recommend reading it, if not just to find out what ‘the end of the sentimental journey’ is
September 28, 2013
This book is intelligent, complicated, vulnerable, and does not shy from the multiple meanings of fuck. It is also deeply, deeply funny--an aspect of Vap's work that often goes unmentioned in reviews, perhaps because there are so many other great things happening. But it is not often I'm laughing out loud on page 1 of a book of poems/poetics, so this review is dedicated to Vap's humor.
Consider part of the discussion of difficulty in poems, particularly the poet having been told, often, that her poems are difficult (12, 13):
"In some cases, difficult sounds like we're accusing the poem. That the poem has been bad. 'Difficult.'
As if the poem were 'supposed' to give the reader something wonderfully, satisfying, and didn't.
And this makes me think of blueballs."
What follows is a new subheading: "CLUE: BLUEBALLS" that continues to explore difficulty.
From "CLUE: EASY" (13):
"Or, the poem might be too easy--so easy that it's not as good as me. Compared to me, the poem is a little dumb and slutty.
I want a bigger game, a better chase, an evasive treasure that I didn't exactly deserve, but somehow captured. Not this easy poem!"
Consider part of the discussion of difficulty in poems, particularly the poet having been told, often, that her poems are difficult (12, 13):
"In some cases, difficult sounds like we're accusing the poem. That the poem has been bad. 'Difficult.'
As if the poem were 'supposed' to give the reader something wonderfully, satisfying, and didn't.
And this makes me think of blueballs."
What follows is a new subheading: "CLUE: BLUEBALLS" that continues to explore difficulty.
From "CLUE: EASY" (13):
"Or, the poem might be too easy--so easy that it's not as good as me. Compared to me, the poem is a little dumb and slutty.
I want a bigger game, a better chase, an evasive treasure that I didn't exactly deserve, but somehow captured. Not this easy poem!"
April 5, 2014
Beautifully (sometimes) and shockingly (more often) irreverent, shaking you up... I love how Sarah Vap describes all of the things she wants her poem to do.
She says, "Sometimes I want a poem to be so difficult that I don't connect at all.
Sometimes I want a poem that I don't even like.
A poem that antagonizes me and pisses me off. A poem that disgusts me. One that I want to throttle or tease mercilessly. Sometimes I want to read a poem that I coldly reject.
Or...a poem that is way too good for me."
I got an interesting education looking up some of the, ahhem, terms. I liked the connection between a poem and a woman...hard to get, easy, too easy, etc., and I really love the wrap up connection at the end.
She says, "Sometimes I want a poem to be so difficult that I don't connect at all.
Sometimes I want a poem that I don't even like.
A poem that antagonizes me and pisses me off. A poem that disgusts me. One that I want to throttle or tease mercilessly. Sometimes I want to read a poem that I coldly reject.
Or...a poem that is way too good for me."
I got an interesting education looking up some of the, ahhem, terms. I liked the connection between a poem and a woman...hard to get, easy, too easy, etc., and I really love the wrap up connection at the end.
March 26, 2016
A brilliantly obscene book.
"Sometimes I want to write a poem to be so difficult that I don't connect at all.
Sometimes, I want a poem that I don't even like.
A poem that antagonizes me and pisses me off. A poem that disgusts me. One that I want to throttle, or tease mercilessly. Sometimes I want to read a poem that I coldly reject.
Or... a poem that is way too good for me."
"Sometimes I want to write a poem to be so difficult that I don't connect at all.
Sometimes, I want a poem that I don't even like.
A poem that antagonizes me and pisses me off. A poem that disgusts me. One that I want to throttle, or tease mercilessly. Sometimes I want to read a poem that I coldly reject.
Or... a poem that is way too good for me."
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews