The Outer Banks

by Muriel Rukeyser

Poetry chapbook by renowned author. The Outer Banks is a poem in XII parts.

Genres: Poetry

13 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1983

About the author

Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her "exact generation".

One of her most powerful pieces was a group of poems entitled The Book of the Dead (1938), documenting the details of the Hawk's Nest incident, an industrial disaster in which hundreds of miners died of silicosis.

Her poem "To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century" (1944), on the theme of Judaism as a gift, was adopted by the American Reform and Reconstructionist movements for their prayer books, something Rukeyser said "astonished" her, as she had remained distant from Judaism throughout her early life.

Reviews

[Connie Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

As is often the case when I read poetry, I need to re-read it at least once to grasp the meaning(s). "The Outer Banks" compels me to read, read aloud, listen to the poet reading it aloud, and then re-read again. It feels huge, elemental, maybe like the Outer Banks themselves. I will continue to dive into this book.

[Cody Stetzel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really short myth of being on a boat and finding the voice of the laborers of the boat.