Susan Howe

2 Poems by Susan Howe

1.  “from Cabbage Gardens”

I found this poem very confusing and hard to understand due to the author’s choice of words, as well as its overall structure.  It made me feel depressed reading it because I found that it was a dark poem that took place near water, maybe a harbor or a lighthouse pier.  Howe writes about herons, ships, a heaving sea, and dark ripples of water which came across as describing this type of setting.  The first half of the poem is written with one to a few words in each line, whereas the second half uses staggered lines with lots of spaces in between. 

2.  “from A Bibliography of the King’s Book or, Eikon Basilike”

Once again, a very difficult poem to understand after reading it three times trying to grasp what Howe was trying to say.  It was still not clear or did not relate to me, for example:

“Election—Vocation—

Justification—

Cape of Wind wreathe   

fame out laughing”

This was one particular part of the poem which really threw me off because I did now know what the poem was about.  It made absolutely no sense.  This poem was also an excerpt of a larger poem so it could possibly make more sense if the whole thing was read.