Song of Songs: A Poem

by Sylvie Baumgartel

A debut poetry collection from a writer whose vivid verse explores the connections and relationships that make us human

Sometimes I like to feel sexy. Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I like to be very plain. Invisible almost, hiding in plain sight. I want to hide and to be found.

In the spirit of the biblical Song of Solomon, Sylvie Baumgartel’s Song of Songs takes the subjects of love and worship, and brings them to the desperate, wild spaces of domestic life. With a voice at once precise and oneiric, Baumgartel explores the landscapes of sex and desire, power and submission, in this groundbreaking book-length poem that forces us to question the bounds of devotion. An ambitious and vivid debut, Song of Songs is a work of breathtaking honesty, couched in language few of us are brave enough to speak aloud.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 2019

Reviews

[Ray Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a more NSFW book than I realized; fine, but be aware. The premise of the poem intrigued me - a novella-length, extended prose poem directed to a second person lover reminded me of my favorite book of all time, Maggie Nelson's Bluets, but the comparison ends more or less there.

Baumgartel occasionally strikes upon deliciously strange images or details, and these are the books strongest moments, where she looks at how an all-consuming desire can be contained in the mundane, the domestic. But these fleeting glimpses are swallowed by the larger, repetitive, and at times monotonous description of the speaker's carnal love. The shock value of the graphic language wears off quickly, and even if there is something satisfying in watching a woman so boldly and unabashedly declare her freedom through her submission, it doesn't hold together in the end.

[mike f. · Rating 4 out of 5]

MISS GIRL'S A FREEEAAKY FREAK LIKE A FREAKY FREAKY FREAKY FREAK MHMMMM anyways when i picked up this book i didn't expect this like at all idk what i expected tbh but ya it's a bit to het and kinky for me BUT i was intrigued throughout so that's a plus and i finished it yknow so i'll give myself that but uh please if you are friends with me please pretend i didn't read this please pretend you didn't see my read this ok anyways good poem

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I was not completely comfortable with the master/slave elements of the BDSM play I loved the beginning of this book-length poem.

Favorite:

I wonder if people look at me and think that I survive just fine. Maybe I do, here I am.

[Irina Kazbanov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the book in one breath. I don’t think I have ever read a piece this profoundly raw, truthful, open, beautiful, bold and erotic and so relatable as the Song of Songs. This discovery of both this raw, open and beautiful piece and the fact or the idea that someone’s deepest feelings, emotions, their submission, their most sacred desires and yearning for her lover could all be verbalized, put on paper, published.. I read and re-read it, savored every sentence, tasted each word on my tongue, tried it all on my body, felt the way it felt. And it felt so right and so intimate, so erotic and so relatable

[Collin Kavanaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoo boy. This book was a certainly a ride. Visceral and explicit expressions of sexual desire, repeating themselves over and over again in pleading and revelry. A good contemporary example of realism. The use of slavery language and imagery accentuating the constant self-degradation in the eyes of her lover leads me to hold this a bit at arm’s length, mainly due to no turning from it or apparent questioning of the practice. Not to kink shame but. It can be a bit much.

[Chang Garcia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This would have been zero stars if that was allowed. What the hell is this POS. I am not a prude, but this so called "poem" was despicable and disgusting.

[Selin Büyükcengiz]

I-
Its not for me I dont think...

Read around 20 pages, dropped it. I love some of her other poems though, maybe I should check out Pink.

[Scout Johnston · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 😭 burnt this book…

[Remy]

there’s never been a more appropriate time to state that this is the 69th book i’ve read this year