Local Visitations (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: Stephen Dunn
- First Published: 2003
- Type of Work: Poetry
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Mythology or myths, Love or romance, Authors or writers, Nineteenth century, Literature, Twenty-first century, Novelists, New Jersey, Gods or goddesses, Suburban life
Stephen Dunn prefaces this collection with three epigraphs, each of which testifies in some way to the ambiguity which lies at the heart of all human relationships, perhaps even at the heart of all human beings themselves. The line from Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, for example, “To pretend is to know oneself,” suggests that humans’ belief that they are composed of a single self to which they might be true is only a fiction; instead they may have as many selves as they have masks; in fact, their masks may be their only selves.
The emblem is reinforced by the first poem,...
[The entire page is 1800 words long]
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