Book description
In this daring new work, the poet Alice Oswald strips away the narrative of the Iliad-the anger of Achilles, the story of Helen-in favor of attending to its atmospheres: the extended similes that bring so much of the natural order into the poem and the corresponding litany of the war-dead,…
Why read it?
1 author picked Memorial as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I saw Alice Oswald recite this entire collection after accidentally getting locked into the Carlos Museum at Emory University (a story for another day). To say that I was moved is an understatement.
This book-length poem memorializes the two hundred soldiers mentioned in Homer’s Iliad. Its unflinching portraits of the war’s sacrificed men are in Oswald’s singularly sharp, melodic style.
From Erica's list on retelling classic stories.
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