Mandolin Engine

Author

Beth Staley, West Virginia University

Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2005

Document Type

MFA Creative Writing Thesis

Degree Type

MFA

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

English

Committee Chair

James Harms.

Committee Co-Chair

Mary Ann Samyn

Committee Member

Kevin Oderman

Abstract

Mandolin Engine is a collection of lyrical poems, mostly translations of dreams or those dream-like moments when sensation, memory, and meditation converge. In these poems, what happens always seems to ride the coattails of what the dream or moment feels like. So the language lives on the verge of surrealism; similes quest for immediacy and accuracy, coughing up metaphors---especially ones that love impossibility, like the mandolin engine. Interested in those hours after the town is painted red and before sunrise brags, this work exists in the solace of intimate landscapes---those of both the natural world and of emotion. The engaged sensibility constantly desires and reconsiders precision with beauty.

Recommended Citation

Staley, Beth, "Mandolin Engine" (2005). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 802.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/802

Embargo Reason

Permanent Embargo – MFA Creative Writing