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New and Collected Hell: A Poem
Shane McCrae, “peer to the peerless” (New York Journal of Books), takes up and turns on its head the mantle of Dante in this contemporary vision of Hell.
Of death the muse is death the muse of Hell
Is death the muse of Heaven I don’t know
O muse of where howcan I hope to go
To where I pray I’ll go sing at least tell
Shane McCrae, one of the most prophetic and powerful poetic voices of our time, has created a twenty-first-century epic in New and Collected Hell. As David Woo wrote in Poetry, “McCrae’s poems allude to literary precursors like Dante, Milton, and the Bible, but the voice is unabashedly of our time . . . By seeking to heal the rift in his own identity, McCrae has listened intently to the literary echoes emanating from the English language and transmuted them through his own dynamic voice.” Here, he gathers new and previous work as a culmination of his long-standing poetic a new and unforgettable journey through Hell. McCrae’s work is indelible, and
this collection brings his searing vision to new depths.
Of death the muse is death the muse of Hell
Is death the muse of Heaven I don’t know
O muse of where howcan I hope to go
To where I pray I’ll go sing at least tell
Shane McCrae, one of the most prophetic and powerful poetic voices of our time, has created a twenty-first-century epic in New and Collected Hell. As David Woo wrote in Poetry, “McCrae’s poems allude to literary precursors like Dante, Milton, and the Bible, but the voice is unabashedly of our time . . . By seeking to heal the rift in his own identity, McCrae has listened intently to the literary echoes emanating from the English language and transmuted them through his own dynamic voice.” Here, he gathers new and previous work as a culmination of his long-standing poetic a new and unforgettable journey through Hell. McCrae’s work is indelible, and
this collection brings his searing vision to new depths.
- GenresPoetry
91 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 11, 2025
11 people are currently reading
216 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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February 18, 2025Zach and I took turns reading this out loud in the bath at the spa at the Yosemite Bug. It is incredible, among other things it really studies dreams, the grammar of dreams, in a way both unexpected and uncannily recognizable. And the beetle sounds amazingly like Trump
May 5, 2025
too difficult for me to appreciate as much as I might - my poetry chops are weak - lacking the frame of references I did my best (?) and skimmed/plowed/slogged thru this fairly graphic, very hallucinatory dream/long poem/short book about a person's descent into hell guided by a mechanical parrot ... Yup...
Here are the tidbits I saved...
It’s mostly assholes who think Hell’s where justice happens Hell
Is sorrow’s Heaven where it goes to live forever with
Its god the human body.
Snails make shells humans make hells.
the end of punishment is the end of the world
Loooooooooooook
UP you can’t sleep forever you
can’t dream forever sooner or
later the dream will notice you
Here are the tidbits I saved...
It’s mostly assholes who think Hell’s where justice happens Hell
Is sorrow’s Heaven where it goes to live forever with
Its god the human body.
Snails make shells humans make hells.
the end of punishment is the end of the world
Loooooooooooook
UP you can’t sleep forever you
can’t dream forever sooner or
later the dream will notice you
May 31, 2025
New and Collected Hell by Shane McCrae stands as one of the most audacious and successful long poems in recent memory, transforming Dante's classical vision of the underworld into a devastatingly contemporary meditation on modern alienation and institutional cruelty. This book-length work demonstrates McCrae's exceptional ability to merge formal innovation with profound emotional depth, creating a Hell that feels both timeless and urgently relevant to our current moment.
McCrae's genius lies in his reimagining of damnation through the lens of corporate bureaucracy and digital surveillance. His Hell features human-resources "bunkers," intake interviews, and endless gray cubicles where the damned appear on screens—a vision that captures the soul-crushing nature of contemporary institutional life with terrifying precision. The detail about communication occurring "by fax machine only" adds a perfect touch of bureaucratic absurdity that makes this underworld feel both surreal and eerily familiar.
The poem's philosophical depth emerges through McCrae's neo-Virgilian guide, whose observation that "It's mostly assholes who think Hell's where justice happens Hell / Is sorrow's Heaven where it goes to live forever with / Its god the human body" reveals a sophisticated understanding of suffering that transcends simple moral categories. This insight transforms the traditional conception of Hell as punishment into something more complex—a realm where pain becomes its own form of worship, where the body itself becomes the deity of endless anguish.
What makes New and Collected Hell particularly powerful is McCrae's formal restraint in the face of overwhelming subject matter. Unlike Dante's narrator, who achieves understanding through his journey, McCrae's protagonist "never gains any real clarity." This refusal to provide easy resolution or false redemption reflects a more honest engagement with the nature of contemporary suffering, where meaning often remains elusive despite our desperate search for it.
McCrae's genius lies in his reimagining of damnation through the lens of corporate bureaucracy and digital surveillance. His Hell features human-resources "bunkers," intake interviews, and endless gray cubicles where the damned appear on screens—a vision that captures the soul-crushing nature of contemporary institutional life with terrifying precision. The detail about communication occurring "by fax machine only" adds a perfect touch of bureaucratic absurdity that makes this underworld feel both surreal and eerily familiar.
The poem's philosophical depth emerges through McCrae's neo-Virgilian guide, whose observation that "It's mostly assholes who think Hell's where justice happens Hell / Is sorrow's Heaven where it goes to live forever with / Its god the human body" reveals a sophisticated understanding of suffering that transcends simple moral categories. This insight transforms the traditional conception of Hell as punishment into something more complex—a realm where pain becomes its own form of worship, where the body itself becomes the deity of endless anguish.
What makes New and Collected Hell particularly powerful is McCrae's formal restraint in the face of overwhelming subject matter. Unlike Dante's narrator, who achieves understanding through his journey, McCrae's protagonist "never gains any real clarity." This refusal to provide easy resolution or false redemption reflects a more honest engagement with the nature of contemporary suffering, where meaning often remains elusive despite our desperate search for it.
October 14, 2025
3.5 sometimes 4
I loved that it was centred around dreams, and the imagery and extended metaphor. I think some lines and parts were stunning. however, at parts I struggled to see the meaning, as well as struggled with connecting to the parts that felt written from a place of deep detachment or anger?
so beautiful, but a little crude and emotionally aggressive/masculine to really connect to personally consistently. they almost shocked me out of the connection and made me feel discomfort, though I guess that's a good sign in itself
I loved that it was centred around dreams, and the imagery and extended metaphor. I think some lines and parts were stunning. however, at parts I struggled to see the meaning, as well as struggled with connecting to the parts that felt written from a place of deep detachment or anger?
so beautiful, but a little crude and emotionally aggressive/masculine to really connect to personally consistently. they almost shocked me out of the connection and made me feel discomfort, though I guess that's a good sign in itself
October 29, 2025
Very, very weird but also wildly creative
November 12, 2025
lao như trí nhớ của loài dế than đến ngày cạn nắng
August 9, 2025
Impressed. And I'm not easily impressed (especially when it comes to poetry).
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews