Stone Milk

by Anne Stevenson

The poems of Stone Milk address the way the written word preserves yet distorts the lives depending on it for fame or survival. Anne Stevenson’s highly engaging new collection opens with A Lament for the Makers, an experimental sequence based on medieval dream poetry that plays with a Dante-inspired yet modern, scientific vision of an underworld of poets. This is followed by a series of shorter poems, mostly related to ageing and the prospect (even the comfort) of dying. The Myth of Medea ends the book on a note both stoic and merry, despite its frank look at the reality of death. Stevenson rewrites the myth as an ‘entertainment’ to be set to music – her own original take on how ancient, classical stories are reinterpreted by societies that inherit and retell them.

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

First published October 9, 2007

About the author

Anne Stevenson was an American-British poet and biographer.

Reviews

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

i enjoyed this collection and think that i’ll probably read more of stevenson’s writing - i particularly liked the myth of medea at the end

[Jude Brigley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read Stevenson for a while and I enjoyed the collection. I particularly liked 'Jet Lag' with the idea of travelling one way and getting younger and then the other and getting older, but still 'keeping my home time going like Harrison's clock'. She captures Herefordshire so beautifully in 'Orcop', 'a ploughed red field, a pasture, a working barn.' The poem is a tribute to the poet, Francis Horovitz,
'beautiful, exceptional/in a landscape of lichen I had to read like Braille.' The book reminded me of why I liked her poetry so much when I was younger as there was much that delighted me in this intelligent and vivid writing.