Lovely, evocative language from Glück. I loved her focus on the seasons and the way she reverses typical poetic associations, such as the contrast between winter/spring for death/life, which she turns into a counterpoint between summer and autumn.

This set of poems focused a lot on the relationship between mothers (parents), daughters (children), and lovers (aging)—often through the trifecta of Demeter, Persephone, and Hades, but also in other figures like Icarus and the Sun, Eros and Psyche. I loved how many layers there were in Glück's poetry; like the myths she was pulling from for this collection, many of the poems called back to ones that came before it so that it felt incredibly cohesive, and by the end it really did feel like I read one longform poem rather than a series of shorter ones.

Anybody who knows me knows that I love the myth of Hades and Persephone, so much so that I'd read a handful of poems from this collection before. But reading Averno in its entirety, in a physical format, brought things into perspective. This is a book that begs me to write a paper on it. I haven't--yet, that is--but I have a document with my mad scribbles of analysis and theorizing saved to my computer.

A stunning collection that confronts mortality and investigates the self.

This is one of my favorite collections of poetry, and it contains my favorite poem of all time (A Myth of Devotion). Louise Gluck is the kind of poet that transports you to another world using often the simplest language, and this rare talent is what makes me return to her again and again. Her poems are at once soft and bracing, surprising and familiar. This is a collection I will reread many times over.

Läs min recension på bloggen: https://www.fiktiviteter.se/2021/02/12/ett-mote-med-louise-gluck-i-tre-akter/

This was my first attempt at properly reading poetry, and while I can definitely appreciate the skill and depth that went into Averno, it just wasn't for me. & that hurts.

Louise Glück’s writing is clearly very thoughtful, and I can see why people widely admire her work. The themes of mythology, death, and the afterlife are interesting, all topics that I thought would help pique my interest, but I found it hard to connect with the poems on a personal level in any way at all.

It’s not that the collection of poems aren't great—in fact, it's the opposite–it’s just that poetry might not be for me. That said, I still rate Averno fairly high because I recognise the talent in the writing. If you are a poetry guy, you've got something I wish I had, but for me, it just didn’t click. Hence the mid rating.

Poetry is especially subjective, so reviewing it sometimes feels a little unfair. Only a few lines in this collection struck me whilst reading, and none haunted me after I’d closed it. There was nothing objectionable about it, and I enjoyed the experience of reading it, but it simply didn’t have any emotional impact on me.

I am tired of having hands
she said
I want wings —

But what will you do without your hands
to be human?

I am tired of human
she said
I want to live on the sun —