Published in 2019
245 pages
In the years before her untimely death from tuberculosis, Adelaide Crapsey wrote much of the verse on which her reputation rests. Her interest in rhythm and meter led her to create a unique variation on the cinquain (or quintain), a 5-line form of 22 syllables influenced by the Japanese haiku and tanka. Her five-line cinquain (now styled as an American cinquain) has a generally iambic meter defined as ‘one-stress, two-stress, three-stress, four-stress and suddenly back to one-stress’ and normally consists of 2 syllables in the first and last lines and 4, 6 and 8 syllables in the middle three lines, as shown in the poem “Niagara”.
Marianne Moore said of her poetic style “Crapsey’s apartness and delicately differentiated footfalls, her pallor and color were impressive”.
What is this book about?
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Adelaide Crapsey was an innovative poet. Her surviving poetry was mostly produced in her final years, before her untimely death at the age of thirty-six. In recent years, her poems have received increased recognition, celebrated for their disciplined, yet fragile brilliance, confirming her status as a pioneer of twentieth century modernism.
- Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Crapsey’s life
- Concise introduction to Crapsey’s life and poetry
- Excellent formatting of the poems
- Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the poetry
Contents:
The Life and Poetry of Adelaide Crapsey
Brief Introduction: Adelaide Crapsey by Claude Bragdon
Complete Poetical Works of Adelaide Crapsey
