The Reckoning of Jeanne d'Antietam: Poems

by Matthew Moore

Overview

The collection of poems in The Reckoning of Jeanne d’Antietam circles the U.S. Civil War and the failed revolution of Reconstruction, and Matthew Moore makes incursions into the histories and beliefs of the era through architectures of sound, but also via ancillary histories and histories stacked upon histories—densely and visibly scrawled—like Anselm Kiefer's sculptures of lead books, melted and dripping with the texts of illegible songs. His poems include the figure of Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) and her voices; the explosion of the U.S. prison system and racial legal fictions amid the groundswell of mass terror in the wake of the U.S. Civil War; the politically poisoned poetic lineage that moves from Modernism, to New Criticism, and dead-ends in Southern Agrarianism; and the destructive colonial histories of the sugar and cotton industries.  

The Reckoning of Jeanne d’Antietam stands imbricated with the spell of language-the-testament; language as hard rhyme and difficult music, evanescence and violence; and the invocation of names and events at their meeting places in history. Moore’s poems stand against sentiment and pity, and against the consolation of that which cannot be consoled. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647790820
Publisher:	University of Nevada Press
Publication date:	02/07/2023
Series:	Test Site Poetry Series
Pages:	88
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	15 - 18 Years

About the Author

Matthew Moore’s poetry has appeared in The Carolina Quarterly, Interim, KROnline, Lana Turner, Prelude, Second Stutter, and West Branch. He is the translator of Opera Buffa by Tomaž Šalamun. Moore has also translated a chapbook, Padova by Igo Gruden. He received a BA from Kenyon College and an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. This is his first collection.

 

Table of Contents

The Sound Earth 3

Leviathan 5

I.

Needle 9

Speculative Fire 10

Antiphon; For the Solar Rooster of St. John 12

In Swatchel-Cove 17

The Etymology of Union 18

Flickering Mechanicsville 20

Rappahannock Succor 22

Fort Pillow Motor Inn 24

Appomattox Agape 25

The Boston Evening Traveller 27

II.

The Rings of Saturn 33

Poison Oak Candle for Southern Agrarians 34

The Vegetable Lambs Entry into Charleston in 1858 54

The Etymology of Union 56

Re-Enactment 57

The Gods of Repositories 59

Not My Horses 60

Whit Women 61

Excoriated Station 63

III.

Nail Sickness; Boston Common 67

Altaforte 68

Bloody-Minded 70

Anabasis 71

Yankee Among the Swallows 73

Seawall: Perjury 74

The Etymology of Union 75

In Heresy Relapse 76

Envoi 77

Mary Rowlandson Beach House for Forgiven Narcissists 78

Acknowledgments 79

About the Author 80

Editorial Reviews

The Reckoning of Jeanne d'Antietam collapses time in fascinating ways.”
— Sasha Steensen, professor of English, Colorado State University, and author of House of Deer
 
“Moore recasts the Civil War through the eyes of a saint, and reading, I realized we are still fighting that war, day after day, in this country.”
—Claudia Keelan, professor of English, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, editor of Interim, and author of eight collections of poetry, including We Step into the Sea

“Matthew Moore’s The Reckoning of Jeanne d'Antietam is a fiercely original yet unfailingly tender book whose deep intelligence speaks to, but never surrenders to, history.”
—Donald Revell, professor of English, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and author of The English Boat

 

From the Publisher