The Oval Hour (Iowa Poetry Prize) by Kathleen Peirce
English | Mar. 1, 1999 | ISBN: 087745664X | 87 Pages | PDF | 3 MB
These poems address the vulnerability of language when we are in extreme states of desire and loss, especially erotic desire and erotic loss. Central to the book is its series of Confessions, 20 formally similar poems that contend with the Confessions of Saint Augustine.

These poems address the vulnerability of language when we are in extreme states of desire and loss, especially erotic desire and erotic loss. Central to the book is its series of Confessions, 20 formally similar poems that contend with the Confessions of Saint Augustine.
"There is an overtone of Christina Rossetti in these poems, partly discernible in the hindered devotions of the Confessions series and partly in the unresisted sensuality of the poems about (largely) women. Two Sisters is the most disconcerting poem in this line since Goblin Market. Peirce has emotional authority and intellectual passion-an inevitable triumph." - Richard Howard.