I am not very comfortable with poetry, because I don’t have the patience to unpack a poem or the background to catch many of the allusions. Plus, I’m not good at wordplay, so, you’ll have to bear with me on this one.
Ginczanka was a Polish Jew who was executed by the Nazis toward the end of World War II. Firebird is a reprint of her only published book, On Centaurs, of 1936, and her uncollected poems from 1936-1944. Her last poem, “Non omnis moriar,” (it’s untitled, but these are the first words) is famous because it names the woman who turned her over to the Nazis and was used to prosecute her after the war.
I was more comfortable with the earlier poems, because I found them easier to understand. Later, the line lengths are longer and more prose-like, which I ironically find harder to read. Many of them have biblical allusions or allusions to mythology or ancient history, things I can catch but not necessarily understand.
These are my foibles, but I also noticed lots of striking phrases. Two poems struck me in particular—“Grammar,” about the love of words, and “Virginity,” which pits an earthy fecundity against an arid intellectualism.
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and fair review.
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