Poet
Anne Carson
Anne Carson
(Canada, 1950)
© Pieter Vandermeer
Biography
Anne Carson has been teaching classical Greek literature at leading universities in Canada and the United States for the past twenty years. It is a part of her life and personality that carries over into her poetry, the inspiration and background for her literary work, consisting of essays (Eros the Bittersweet, The Economy of the Unlost) and a mixture of essays and poetry (Plainwater; Glass, Irony and God). Any associations of classical scholarship with stuffiness are quickly dispelled by Anne Carson’s talent for reviving the poetry and philosophy of the ancient Greeks and for making them part of our modern experience.
But neither her subtle narrative skill, nor her strangely melodious verse can explain why, when the mind reads Anne Carson, the heart reads along. The reason is in the sweat of suffering, in the erotic, bleeding pain that emanates from her lines. It is a pain which, together with her often idiosyncratic punctuation and the very personal music this produces, suggests a kinship with Emily Dickinson, whom she often quotes.
Her new collection The Beauty of a Husband (a fiction essay in 29 tangos), is due to appear in 2001. Her collection Men in the Off Hours is coming out in the U.S.A. later this year.
© Marijke Emeis (Translated by Ko Kooman)
[Anne Carson took part in the Poetry International Festival Rotterdam 2000. This text was written on that occasion.]Publications (selection)
Short Talks (1992)
Glass, Irony and God (1995)
Glass and God (1998)
Autobiography of Red (1999)
Poems
TANGO XXII. HOMO LUDENS
TANGO XIV. RUNNING YOUR HAND OVER IT TO CALCULATE ITS DIMENSIONS YOU THINK AT FIRST IT IS STONE THEN INK OR BLACK WATER WHERE THE HAND SINKS IN THEN A BOWL OF ELSEWHERE FROM WHICH YOU PULL OUT NO HAND
TANGO XII. HERE’S OUR CLEAN BUSINESS NOW LET’S GO DOWN THE HALL TO THE BLACK ROOM WHERE I MAKE MY REAL MONEY
TANGO VII. BUT TO HONOR TRUTH WHICH IS SMOOTH DIVINE AND LIVES AMONG THE GODS WE MUST TRUST (WITH PLATO) DANCE LYING WHICH LIVES DOWN BELOW AMID THE MASS OF MEN BOTH TRAGIC AND ROUGH
TANGO XIX. AND KNEELING AT THE EDGE OF THE TRANSPARENT SEA I SHALL SHAPE FOR MYSELF A NEW HEART FROM SALT AND MUD
Poems
Poems of Anne Carson
Sponsors
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère