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Figure Studies: Poems
Poet Claudia Emerson begins Figure Studies with a twenty-five-poem lyric sequence called "All Girls School," offering intricate views of a richly imagined boarding school for girls. Whether focused on a lesson, a teacher, or the girls themselves as they collectively "school" -- or refuse to -- the poems explore ways girls are "trained" in the broadest sense of the word."Gossips," the second section, is a shorter sequence narrated by women as they talk about other women in a variety of isolations; these poems, told from the outside looking in, highlight a speculative voicing of all the gossips cannot know. In "Early Lessons," the third section, children narrate as they also observe similarly solitary women, the children's innocence allowing them to see in farther than the gossips can. The fourth section offers studies of women and men in situations in which gender, with all of its complexities, figures powerfully.The follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Late Wife, Figure Studies upholds Emerson's place among contemporary poetry's elite.
The Mannequin above Main Street Motors
When the only ladies' dress shop closed, she was left on the street for trash, unsalvageable,
one arm missing, lost at the shoulder, one leg at the hip. But she was wearing a blue-sequined negligee
and blonde wig, so they helped themselves to her on a lark -- drunken impulse -- and for years kept her
leaning in a corner, beside an attic window, rendered invisible. The dusk
was also perpetual in the garage below,punctuated only by bare bulbs hung close
over the engines. An oily grime coated the walls, and a decade of calendars promoted
stock-car drivers, women in dated swimsuits, even their bodies out of fashion. Radio distorted
there; cigarette smoke moaned, the pedal steel conceding to that place a greater, echoing
sorrow. So, lame, forgotten prank, she remained,back turned forever to the dark storage
behind her, gaze leveled just above anyone's who could have looked up
to mistake in the cast of her face fresh longing -- her expression still reluctant figure for it.
The Mannequin above Main Street Motors
When the only ladies' dress shop closed, she was left on the street for trash, unsalvageable,
one arm missing, lost at the shoulder, one leg at the hip. But she was wearing a blue-sequined negligee
and blonde wig, so they helped themselves to her on a lark -- drunken impulse -- and for years kept her
leaning in a corner, beside an attic window, rendered invisible. The dusk
was also perpetual in the garage below,punctuated only by bare bulbs hung close
over the engines. An oily grime coated the walls, and a decade of calendars promoted
stock-car drivers, women in dated swimsuits, even their bodies out of fashion. Radio distorted
there; cigarette smoke moaned, the pedal steel conceding to that place a greater, echoing
sorrow. So, lame, forgotten prank, she remained,back turned forever to the dark storage
behind her, gaze leveled just above anyone's who could have looked up
to mistake in the cast of her face fresh longing -- her expression still reluctant figure for it.
- GenresPoetryLiterary Fiction
80 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2008
5 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Claudia Emerson
19 books38 followersBorn and raised in Chatham, Virginia, Claudia Emerson studied writing at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Her poetry, steeped in the Southern Narrative tradition, bears the influences of Ellen Bryant Voigt, Betty Adcock, and William Faulkner. Of the collection Late Wife (2005), poet Deborah Pope observed, “Like the estranged lover in one of her poems who pitches horseshoes in the dark with preternatural precision, so Emerson sends her words into a different kind of darkness with steely exactness, their arc of perception over and over striking true.”
Emerson’s volumes of poetry include Pharaoh, Pharaoh (1997); Pinion: An Elegy (2002); Late Wife (2005), which won the Pulitzer Prize; Figure Studies (2008); and Secure the Shadow (2012).
Her honors include two additional Pulitzer Prize nominations as well as fellowships from the Library of Congress, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2008 she was appointed poet laureate of Virginia, a two-year role.
Emerson was poetry editor for the Greensboro Review and a contributing editor for Shenandoah. She taught at Washington and Lee University, Randolph-Macon Women’s College, and the University of Mary Washington. She died in 2014.
From The Poetry Foundation website.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/c...
Emerson’s volumes of poetry include Pharaoh, Pharaoh (1997); Pinion: An Elegy (2002); Late Wife (2005), which won the Pulitzer Prize; Figure Studies (2008); and Secure the Shadow (2012).
Her honors include two additional Pulitzer Prize nominations as well as fellowships from the Library of Congress, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2008 she was appointed poet laureate of Virginia, a two-year role.
Emerson was poetry editor for the Greensboro Review and a contributing editor for Shenandoah. She taught at Washington and Lee University, Randolph-Macon Women’s College, and the University of Mary Washington. She died in 2014.
From The Poetry Foundation website.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/c...
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
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May 8, 2016This puppy's divided into four sections, and I definitely prefer the first (and, conveniently enough, the longest), called "All Girls School." Some might chafe at the fact that every poem in this section is written in couplets, but I have no problem on that count. Couplets glide. And what I liked best about these poems is the precision. Sharply cut little gems, they be, even if some are necessarily stronger than others.
Another breath of fresh air? No first-person point of view. Third. More objective, Less of the usual navel-gazing. I didn't realize how refreshing it was until I was well in and put out an APB for the letter I.
I love to play the game of reading, then checking the Acknowledgments to see what journal previously published the poem. Good ones, I expect, once graced the pages of the heavyweights -- your New Yorkers and your Poetrys.
Lighter fare, you'd guess? Easier-to-break journals, of course. Alas (or guffaw, maybe), it doesn't work that way. What do you expect with poetry? Judging published poetry is a critical free-for-all. One reader's junk is another editor's published and paid for. Another reader's gem is one editor's return-to-sender.
Whatever. Here's a taste of a poem from the first section, then:
Fire Drill
Bells sound them from sleep, and their imaginations
rise, recite all they have been told: the curtains
on fire, the beds, nightgowns, their hair, their hair.
They've practiced this escape before
and know to close the windows last, descend
the ringing flights of stairs in perfect wordlessness
to line up, barefoot, on the dew-wet lawn,
face the building, pretend to watch it burn.
Another breath of fresh air? No first-person point of view. Third. More objective, Less of the usual navel-gazing. I didn't realize how refreshing it was until I was well in and put out an APB for the letter I.
I love to play the game of reading, then checking the Acknowledgments to see what journal previously published the poem. Good ones, I expect, once graced the pages of the heavyweights -- your New Yorkers and your Poetrys.
Lighter fare, you'd guess? Easier-to-break journals, of course. Alas (or guffaw, maybe), it doesn't work that way. What do you expect with poetry? Judging published poetry is a critical free-for-all. One reader's junk is another editor's published and paid for. Another reader's gem is one editor's return-to-sender.
Whatever. Here's a taste of a poem from the first section, then:
Fire Drill
Bells sound them from sleep, and their imaginations
rise, recite all they have been told: the curtains
on fire, the beds, nightgowns, their hair, their hair.
They've practiced this escape before
and know to close the windows last, descend
the ringing flights of stairs in perfect wordlessness
to line up, barefoot, on the dew-wet lawn,
face the building, pretend to watch it burn.
October 3, 2022
As a resident of Pittsylvania County, I am in complete awe of this poetry collection. Claudia Emerson is from Chatham, Virginia and taught at the only girls private school in my county. I’m an avid reader of poetry, and this is the best collection I’ve ever read. I devoured every page with a hunger that I’ve never felt before. Her poetry is so accessible, and easy to follow, while also being intellectual and gorgeous. There’s a special talent in writing poetry how she does, and there’s no wonder she won the Pulitzer Prize. Do yourself a favor and read Claudia Emerson right now.
Read
October 30, 2019Wonderful poetry. I have never read a book of someone's poems and I'm glad Emerson's was the first one for me. Her poignant language in describing the girl's academy and what went on there was jst the kind of writing I enjoy. It made me want to find more of her works.
June 2, 2017
This is written with such careful attention and such craft, and also such dispassion, which is in itself very affecting. And yet...
October 25, 2024
A lovely yet haunting book of poems, almost an essay.
April 10, 2016
Spring Ice Storm
The forecast had not predicted it,
and its beginning, a calming, rumbled dusk
and pleasant lightning, she welcomed as harbinger
of rain. Then as night came she heard the world
relapse, slide backward into winter’s insistent
tick and hiss. In the morning, she woke to a powerless
house, the baseboards cold, the sky blank,
mercury hardfallen as the ice and fixed
even at noon. The woodpile on the porch dwindled
to its last layer; she had not replenished it
for a month and could see beyond it windblown ice
in the shed where the axe angled Excalibur-like,
frozen in the wood. Still, she didn’t worry
beyond the fate of the daffodils, green-sheathed,
the forsythia and quince already bloomed out—
knowing this couldn’t last. But by afternoon
she did begin feeding the fire in the cast-iron
stove ordinary things she thought she could replace,
watching through the small window of isinglass
the fast-burning wooden spoons, picture frames,
then the phone book and stack of old almanacs—
forgotten predictions and phases of the moon—
before resorting to a brittle wicker rocker,
quick as dried grass to catch, bedframes and slats,
ladderback chairs, the labor of breaking them up
against the porch railing its own warming.
Feverlike, the freeze broke after two days,
and she woke to a melting steady as the rain
had been. The fire she had tended more carefully
than the household it had consumed she could now
let go out, and she was surprised at how little
she mourned the rooms heat-scoured, readied for spring.
I have known about Claudia Emerson for at least a decade. I know she won the Library of Virginia's Annual Literary Award for poetry at least twice and that she won the Pulitzer in 2006. I also know that she died much too young.
I should have found a way to hear Emerson read her poetry since she lived not far from me. That never happened and somehow I had not read any of her poetry collections. So, since this is National Poetry month, I decided to start the celebration with this book.
Emerson was a wonderful writer. This collection included a series of poems set in a girls’ school. These 25 poems are amazing. I felt like I had attended some of the classes. There are little details in each poem that spoke volumes to me. Interestingly, for most of Emerson’s poems, it is the last lines that not only tie the poems together, but that also makes me want to read the whole poem again.
I have included my favorite poem of this collection, but I liked all of them. If you are a poetry reader and have not encountered Claudia Emerson, look online and see what you think. I feel blessed by her way with words.
The forecast had not predicted it,
and its beginning, a calming, rumbled dusk
and pleasant lightning, she welcomed as harbinger
of rain. Then as night came she heard the world
relapse, slide backward into winter’s insistent
tick and hiss. In the morning, she woke to a powerless
house, the baseboards cold, the sky blank,
mercury hardfallen as the ice and fixed
even at noon. The woodpile on the porch dwindled
to its last layer; she had not replenished it
for a month and could see beyond it windblown ice
in the shed where the axe angled Excalibur-like,
frozen in the wood. Still, she didn’t worry
beyond the fate of the daffodils, green-sheathed,
the forsythia and quince already bloomed out—
knowing this couldn’t last. But by afternoon
she did begin feeding the fire in the cast-iron
stove ordinary things she thought she could replace,
watching through the small window of isinglass
the fast-burning wooden spoons, picture frames,
then the phone book and stack of old almanacs—
forgotten predictions and phases of the moon—
before resorting to a brittle wicker rocker,
quick as dried grass to catch, bedframes and slats,
ladderback chairs, the labor of breaking them up
against the porch railing its own warming.
Feverlike, the freeze broke after two days,
and she woke to a melting steady as the rain
had been. The fire she had tended more carefully
than the household it had consumed she could now
let go out, and she was surprised at how little
she mourned the rooms heat-scoured, readied for spring.
I have known about Claudia Emerson for at least a decade. I know she won the Library of Virginia's Annual Literary Award for poetry at least twice and that she won the Pulitzer in 2006. I also know that she died much too young.
I should have found a way to hear Emerson read her poetry since she lived not far from me. That never happened and somehow I had not read any of her poetry collections. So, since this is National Poetry month, I decided to start the celebration with this book.
Emerson was a wonderful writer. This collection included a series of poems set in a girls’ school. These 25 poems are amazing. I felt like I had attended some of the classes. There are little details in each poem that spoke volumes to me. Interestingly, for most of Emerson’s poems, it is the last lines that not only tie the poems together, but that also makes me want to read the whole poem again.
I have included my favorite poem of this collection, but I liked all of them. If you are a poetry reader and have not encountered Claudia Emerson, look online and see what you think. I feel blessed by her way with words.
April 24, 2016
This collection is divided into four sections, and all the poems are written in constrained, tight, but unrhymed couplets. They are all also exactly what the title tells you they will be: figure studies of individuals and groups--mostly women, mostly of an age just slightly past.
The first section is the most sustained: "All Girls School." While only can only gleam the complete context from clues in the poems, this is a figure study of an all girls parochial school, probably in the 1950s or 1960s. The clues about evolution being taught in such a context indicate that is probably post-Vatican 2, but the mores of the school definitely seem to be of a different generation that school girls in the 1980s and 1990s. That context aside, the way these couplets glide and remain tight metrically without feeling stately or self-consciousnessly formal works. The pairing of lines often allow for strong juxtapositions and subtle shifts in tone.
In the subsequent sections of Figure Studies, the figures that are studied are more individualized. Often starting from concrete, Emerson moves into the interior as most of these poems progress. The final section of book seems focused on adulthood and stay in a subjective mode. As if the figure being studied is now the voice of the book itself and not other characters around that voice. It is nice to read such a collection that is clearly organized and composed as a collection but where each individual poem stands out.
The first section is the most sustained: "All Girls School." While only can only gleam the complete context from clues in the poems, this is a figure study of an all girls parochial school, probably in the 1950s or 1960s. The clues about evolution being taught in such a context indicate that is probably post-Vatican 2, but the mores of the school definitely seem to be of a different generation that school girls in the 1980s and 1990s. That context aside, the way these couplets glide and remain tight metrically without feeling stately or self-consciousnessly formal works. The pairing of lines often allow for strong juxtapositions and subtle shifts in tone.
In the subsequent sections of Figure Studies, the figures that are studied are more individualized. Often starting from concrete, Emerson moves into the interior as most of these poems progress. The final section of book seems focused on adulthood and stay in a subjective mode. As if the figure being studied is now the voice of the book itself and not other characters around that voice. It is nice to read such a collection that is clearly organized and composed as a collection but where each individual poem stands out.
April 19, 2010
Thoroughly enjoyable. I love the idea of creating poems for an All-girls school, and having attended one,
could appreciate both my experience and the experiences in the book. The opening poem, "The Mannequin above Main Street Motors" is brilliant and introduces concepts such as "unsalvageable" , what is kept, what is missing, what is neglected, and how "figure" morphs into multiple layers of meaning.
The mannequin is outward appearance of woman’s body,
clothed as someone else sees fit, but this one “is left on the street for trash, unsalvageable” – which makes one think about what we “figure” or judge
as useful or not. She is the result of a forgotten prank,
"anyone who could have look up
to mistake in the cast of her face fresh longing—
her expression still reluctant figure for it."
The odd syntax allows the words “cast” and “figure” and “longing’ to resonate
in the possibilitity of a look, both the gaze of her inanimate eyes,
with the improbable gaze of anyone in front of the motor shop,
looking up at the one-armed, one-legged, blond-wigged model,
the look of her, in a blue-sequined negligee.
What do we neglect, throw away, put on the calendars in the grime-coated walls of repair shops?
**
could appreciate both my experience and the experiences in the book. The opening poem, "The Mannequin above Main Street Motors" is brilliant and introduces concepts such as "unsalvageable" , what is kept, what is missing, what is neglected, and how "figure" morphs into multiple layers of meaning.
The mannequin is outward appearance of woman’s body,
clothed as someone else sees fit, but this one “is left on the street for trash, unsalvageable” – which makes one think about what we “figure” or judge
as useful or not. She is the result of a forgotten prank,
"anyone who could have look up
to mistake in the cast of her face fresh longing—
her expression still reluctant figure for it."
The odd syntax allows the words “cast” and “figure” and “longing’ to resonate
in the possibilitity of a look, both the gaze of her inanimate eyes,
with the improbable gaze of anyone in front of the motor shop,
looking up at the one-armed, one-legged, blond-wigged model,
the look of her, in a blue-sequined negligee.
What do we neglect, throw away, put on the calendars in the grime-coated walls of repair shops?
**
April 7, 2011
I've always been fascinated by the poetic sequence. Each poem can stand alone, but is also structurally and thematically connected to its companions. You can read one in isolation, but the effect seems more intense when the individual pieces are entered into a dialogic dynamic. Figure Studies contains several closely-related sequences. The first segment offers up fragments and impressions based on Emerson's girlhood years in a boarding school. The themes encompass a wide range of coming-of-age experiences, but there are no fully realized characters. On the contrary, the poems seem to speak for an anonymous collective.
In the subsequent sections of Figure Studies, we are introduced to actual characters and more personal scenarios. I really enjoyed the manner in which the poetic sequence gradually carries us into increasing layers of interiority. Rather than plunging us into the personal or intimate thoughts of a single speaker, Figure Studies allows that intimate voice to emerge by degrees.
The poems in the final section deal with more adult experiences. The poetic voice itself seems to mature as Figure Studies follows both a social and a personal trajectory, moving from cloistered anonymous youth to more autonomous adulthood.
In the subsequent sections of Figure Studies, we are introduced to actual characters and more personal scenarios. I really enjoyed the manner in which the poetic sequence gradually carries us into increasing layers of interiority. Rather than plunging us into the personal or intimate thoughts of a single speaker, Figure Studies allows that intimate voice to emerge by degrees.
The poems in the final section deal with more adult experiences. The poetic voice itself seems to mature as Figure Studies follows both a social and a personal trajectory, moving from cloistered anonymous youth to more autonomous adulthood.
August 1, 2008
Although the cover resembles the two girls from "The Shining" nothing in the book is quite as creepy. One "figure study" discusses the retired anatomical model in the closet of an all-girl's school whose womb has been worn from all the hands that have reached in. The book begins with an interconnected series of vignettes telling the situation of the girls in this school, (and more generally the situation of women) with many reminders of childhood and feminist themes running throughout. I liked it more than her Pulitzer-winning previous collection, Late Wife, because this series seemed to propel me from one poem to the next. The poem "Environmental Awareness: The Right Whale" moves with precision from the abundance of oil in whales to the corsets made of whalebone designed to shrink a woman's waist so a man's hands could fit fully around the circumference.
December 10, 2010
I loved it and learned a lot, blogged about it earlier. I liked Late Wife and Pinion even more, for gripping language and images, but I appreciated the close look at girls and women in this book--in a girls' school, in a community, and as individuals who could be somehow perceived in glimpses.
Also loved how woman-as-object is accomplished here--with gentleness, irony, and fact--for instance, in poems about a mannequin and some anatomy models. Loved the epigraphs at the beginnings of sections, including one from Jane Eyre, about girls "[r]anged on benches down the sides of the room,...motionless and erect." Chilling.
In a hurry to 1) get my review up before the end of the year in this Poetry Readers Challenge group and 2) return this book to its rightful owner!
Now that I have found her, I will read anything by Claudia Emerson.
Also loved how woman-as-object is accomplished here--with gentleness, irony, and fact--for instance, in poems about a mannequin and some anatomy models. Loved the epigraphs at the beginnings of sections, including one from Jane Eyre, about girls "[r]anged on benches down the sides of the room,...motionless and erect." Chilling.
In a hurry to 1) get my review up before the end of the year in this Poetry Readers Challenge group and 2) return this book to its rightful owner!
Now that I have found her, I will read anything by Claudia Emerson.
January 17, 2013
I was not in love with this collection the way I was with Late Wife.
My favorite piece from the book:
Beginning Sculpture: The Subtractive Method
They sit before the assignment--identical
blocks of salt--and from tall, precarious stools,
look down into blank panes of possibility. In the end,
though, the only choice is to carve something
smaller. So they begin. Rough chunks like hail
fall before the rasps' and chisels' beveled
edges. Salt permeates this air as it has
for years, the floor gritty, their hands, eyes,
even the skylights made opaque with it--
disappearing not unlike the way it is
subtracted from similar blocks, in the fields,
before the tongues of the horses.
My favorite piece from the book:
Beginning Sculpture: The Subtractive Method
They sit before the assignment--identical
blocks of salt--and from tall, precarious stools,
look down into blank panes of possibility. In the end,
though, the only choice is to carve something
smaller. So they begin. Rough chunks like hail
fall before the rasps' and chisels' beveled
edges. Salt permeates this air as it has
for years, the floor gritty, their hands, eyes,
even the skylights made opaque with it--
disappearing not unlike the way it is
subtracted from similar blocks, in the fields,
before the tongues of the horses.
November 30, 2009
I guess when it comes to poetry, I am comparing others with Dorothy Parker and the likes of. I met Claudia Emerson and she is a wonderful person and very humorous. There were a few poems in this book that stood out from the rest. It's a short read,so if you are into poetry, hey then why not read it?
Read
October 28, 2018"Figure Studies" offers poems that are deceptively simple. In the first section, an entire girls boarding school campus comes to life room, by room. In later sections, Emerson offers poems that offer a gendered reading of day-to-day figures. This is feminist poetry with just the right amount of subtlety.
February 12, 2017
This is a book of poems set in a girl's school. It's split into three different sections, and I really like the second and third sections, but completely did not get the first section. I'm glad I kept reading despite that, because there is some great stuff in here.
January 15, 2009
Really, really good.
November 14, 2010
The sections that observed solitary women were my favorite. Emerson writes fantastic narrative poetry with a knack for visual imagery that will take your breath away page after page.
July 27, 2012
I read this waiting on car repairs and it didn't leave much of an impression. I wasn't really in a state of mind to be really receptive to lyric poetry, but that's the way it goes, I guess.
November 13, 2013
Everything Emerson writes teaches me how to be a better poet: to be fully aware of the moment, to look closer than what seems possible.
March 7, 2016
An important sequence of poems written for women and men alike to explore how women are taught to interact with each other, authority, institutions, and their own minds.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews