Atlantis (Magill’s Literary Annual 1996)
At a glance:
- Author: Mark Doty
- First Published: 1995
- Type of Work: Poetry
- Genres: Short fiction, Poetry
- Subjects: Nature, Beauty, Death or dying, Bereavement or grief, AIDS, Terminal illness or terminally ill, Life and death, Aesthetics
Mark Doty’s fourth book of poems, Atlantis, is both disturbing and comforting. These poems combine an exact and appreciative description of nature with a narrative of Wally Roberts’ death from AIDS. One might expect the combination to self-destruct, turning to facile comfort or a nihilism born of the ironic contrast, but it does not. Instead, the juxtaposition of death and beauty leads to a rereading of both the physical and the spiritual world. The conclusions reached are tentative and uncertain, but they represent a credible faith. If this book narrates a tale of death,...
[The entire page is 2053 words long]
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