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Wyf-King
Written in modern English, Middle English and Anglo-Saxon, 'Wyf-King' chronicles the queens consort of pre-and-post-Conquest England and their relationships with grief, motherhood and power. Through the use of poetry, textual notes and glosses, it seeks to build a picture, a portrait or an idea of these forgotten women and they lives they led.
Each poem contains a translation, a biography and a linguistic gloss.
Each poem contains a translation, a biography and a linguistic gloss.
- GenresPoetry
52 pages, Paperback
Published June 7, 2019
18 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 2, 2021
I'm hardly a poetry buff, but I imagine it'd be difficult to find another writer that infuses their work with research and context the way Annabel Mahoney does while never letting it detract from the emotional weight of the poetry. There's a lot that's clever about the presentation of "Wyf-King", and it'd be easy to write off the inclusion of translations and historic context as "telling, not showing", but it really comes together here; the context and translations work in tandem with the more personal poetry to create a complete narrative. Whether you're a history/linguistic nerd or not, it's extremely compelling.
While it's almost impossible to discuss "Wyf-King" without talking about the innovative form, there's just as much to be said about the quality of the poetry. Mahoney presents a vivid internal narrative for each subject that feels almost private. The choice of language and imagery ranges from stark to lyrical, but there is a deeply personal current that keeps each piece grounded and the collection cohesive as a whole. The poetry would stand well alone, but part of the brilliance is how much depth and meaning the translation and contextual notes reveal.
I've been recommending this collection to anyone who appreciates history, poetry, and/or linguistics and I absolutely stand by that, but I don't think you have to be an expert or even an absolute dork to enjoy "Wyf-King". Realtalk, I'm not an expert in any of those subjects, I'm just someone who grew up on those Royal Diaries books that were like, fictionalized diaries of real world female royalty and just having nostalgia for those predispositions me to carrying around my copy of "Wyf-King" so I could pull it out around my friends like, "hey, we all appreciate good art, right?"
While it's almost impossible to discuss "Wyf-King" without talking about the innovative form, there's just as much to be said about the quality of the poetry. Mahoney presents a vivid internal narrative for each subject that feels almost private. The choice of language and imagery ranges from stark to lyrical, but there is a deeply personal current that keeps each piece grounded and the collection cohesive as a whole. The poetry would stand well alone, but part of the brilliance is how much depth and meaning the translation and contextual notes reveal.
I've been recommending this collection to anyone who appreciates history, poetry, and/or linguistics and I absolutely stand by that, but I don't think you have to be an expert or even an absolute dork to enjoy "Wyf-King". Realtalk, I'm not an expert in any of those subjects, I'm just someone who grew up on those Royal Diaries books that were like, fictionalized diaries of real world female royalty and just having nostalgia for those predispositions me to carrying around my copy of "Wyf-King" so I could pull it out around my friends like, "hey, we all appreciate good art, right?"
Displaying 1 of 1 review