WorthThese strong, multilayered poems test the transformative powers of dressmakers, jewelers, actors, and Darwin’s darkest finches as they adapt to a changing world where the same train hurtles past them toward marketplace and death camp both. Throughout, many of the poems use inherited forms to tell their stories, but the inheritance here comes down damaged and threadbare—yet full of power. In Worth Robyn Schiff inquires about making, buying, selling, and stealing in the material world, the natural landscape, and the human soul. Opening with the renowned couture house of Charles Frederick Worth, the father of high fashion— “The dress was so big, / one's hand is useless to take glass from table; / the skirt approaches while the hand is yet distanced” —and ending with the House of De Beers and a diamond thief named Adam Worth— “You'll know me by my approach / I'm coming on foot with a diamond in my mouth” —Schiff moves from Cartier and Tiffany to the Shedd Aquarium, from Marie Antoinette to the Civil War, from Mary Pickford to Marilyn Monroe. |
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Common terms and phrases
Adam Worth aligning her compact beak behaved improperly today Bernhardt bird bonsai bridge button Cartier Chanel coffin Cohen compact mirror crease dark Dawn Gate devil finch diamond Diamonds cut door drape empty eyes feather feeding field film final finch’s find firefly first fit flash flight flow flower fly folded Garden glass glove Goddess of Mercy gold graphite Gypsy Rose hand hatchet hear Helen Helen Jewett hold horse House of Versace House of Worth Hoxie’s inside Iowa kind as Stella King’s Kuhl House Poets lace legs lifted light locked look Lucia finch Margaret Lockwood Mark Levine Mary Pickford morning mouth night onyx pears platinum post office red-footed red-footed booby reflected rewind Robins Rosenberg Sarah Bernhardt scene ship shoe shy as Unity someone stairs Stella Maris string Theater There’s thread Tiffany & Co Unity Blake Vampire Finch watches window woodpecker finch worn
Bibliographic information
| Title | Worth Volume 1 of Kuhl House Poets |
| Author | Robyn Schiff |
| Edition | revised |
| Publisher | University of Iowa Press, 2002 |
| ISBN | 1587294273, 9781587294273 |
| Length | 87 pages |
| Subjects | › › Poetry / American / General Poetry / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |