Second Oldest: A Poetic History of Philadelphia

by Blythe Davenport

"Blythe Davenport's mastery of the intricate and unexpected image guides us back and forth from past to present in her poetic portraits of the Philadelphia landscape. She fills her poems with voices, places, and lines like 'the sun flexes his supernova arm, punching/a perfect round brilliant/in the bruised evening sky.' This is a book well worth reading and rereading for its informed voice, its subtlety, its grace." -Donna Wolf-Palacio, author of What I Don't Know

66 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2013

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Davenport’s enjoyable—and impressive—book of poems presents historic Philadelphia, warts and all. She accepts, or rather embraces, her city critically, grudgingly, sad and loving all at once. She is proud of its history but makes fun of the myths and herself for getting caught up in them, notably in one of my favorites, “Clinton Street.” We get the impression that her city’s claims to historic greatness are, like those of the first and present capitals, exaggerated and not infrequently bogus, even hypocritical, as in “Penn’s Treaty Tree.” The poet does not exclude herself from this view of history, as she reveals herself as a “second oldest” child in the moving “Dottie’s Daughter.”
The poet delights her readers with her sounds and rhythms, often pleasantly surprising them, in the midst of serious matters, with alliterations and rhymes and hints of puns. She enjoys whimsy, and she enjoys gliding readers lyrically and rapidly from start to finish on her lyrics, as in “Grumblethorpe Triolet” and “Merry Weather in Town.”
I strongly recommend Second Oldest: A Poetic History of Philadelphia. Some of the selections are deliberately reluctant to give themselves away without being coaxed. Just read them aloud and keep going, hearing the sounds and feeling the beat. They will yield.