[A few years
back, I shared a handful of my favorite American poems in a
weeklong series. Before I go back to sharing poems for money—well, teaching
them as part of my job, but you get the idea—I wanted to highlight another week’s
worth of favorite poems and a couple reasons why I love each. Share your
favorites in comments, please!]
Today’s favorite
poem is Sarah Piatt’s “A
Pique at Parting” (1879).
I love “Pique”
because it exemplifies Piatt’s
dialogic style and perspective, her use of conversation (even when
ostensibly within one speaker’s point of view, as is “Pique”) to build a sense
of how our identities and voices exist in relationship to those of others. I
love it because it challenges gender ideals and myths without becoming the slightest
bit preachy or pedantic. And I love it because it’s as smart and funny as Piatt’s
contemporary writer
Fanny Fern, without losing a bit of the poetic complexity that made Piatt a
worthy rival of her fellow contemporary Emily
Dickinson.
Next favorite tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Thoughts on this
poem? Other favorites you’d share?
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