Native guard
Trethewey, Natasha D.
1966-
creator
text
bibliography
mau
Boston
Houghton Mifflin
2007, c2006
2007
2006
1st Mariner Books ed.
monographic
eng
51 p. ; 22 cm.
Natasha Trethewey's muscular, luminous poems explore the complex memory of the American South--history that belongs to all Americans. The sequence forming the spine of the collection follows the ''Native Guard'', one of the first black regiments mustered into service in the Civil War. In Trethewey's hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi, a plaque honors Confederate POWs, but there is no memorial to these vanguard Union soldiers. ''Native Guard'' is both a pilgrimage and an elegy, as Trethewey skillfully employs a variety of poetic forms to create a lyrical monument to these forgotten voices. Interwoven are poems honoring Trethewey's mother and recalling her fraught childhood--her parents' interracial marriage was still illegal in 1966, in Mississippi. ''Native Guard'' is a haunting, beguiling narrative caught in the intersections of public and personal testament. As Rita Dove proclaimed, "Here is a young poet in full possession of her craft."
Theories of time and space -- The southern crescent -- Genus narcissus -- Graveyard blues -- What the body can say -- Photograph: ice storm 1971 -- What is evidence -- Letter -- After your death -- Myth -- At dusk -- Pilgrimage -- Scenes from a documentary history of Mississippi -- King Cotton, 1907 -- Glyph, Aberdeen 1913 -- Flood -- You are late -- Native guard -- Again, the fields -- Pastoral -- Miscegenation -- My mother dreams another country -- Southern history -- Blond -- Southern Gothic -- Incident -- Providence -- Monument -- Elegy for the native guards -- South.
Natasha Trethewey.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-49).
n-us---
n-us-ms
United States
History
Civil War, 1861-1865
Participation, African American
Poetry
African American soldiers
Poetry
Racially mixed people
Poetry
Interracial marriage
Poetry
Mississippi
Poetry
Mothers
Poetry
811.6 T799n2007
0618604634
9780618604630
0618872655
9780618872657
IAC
070423
20190729104700.0
123416531