Superfecta: A collection of poems with a critical introduction

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: Superfecta consists of poems written over a three-year period (2004-2007). Many of the poems were written for poetry workshops with Lisa Lewis and Ai. The manuscript is divided into four sections, with each section thematically represented by section titles, which are each the name of a fictional race horse (The Martian, Domingo, Mr. Jones, and Countdown). The critical introduction investigates the history, revision process, and aesthetic influences of the manuscript, drawing especially on the critical work of authors such as Stanley Plumly, Robert Pinsky, Donald Justice, Wallace Stevens, and W.H. Auden.

Findings and Conclusions: Thematically, the manuscript is bound together by the running theme of the gamble. In Superfecta, gambling is dealt with directly most often through horse betting, and indirectly and metaphorically through language as it represents its own form of gambling. Through a blending of free-verse narrative and lyric elements, and through the influence of Stanley Plumly's "prose lyric," Robert Pinsky's "discursive poetry," and other authors' writings on sincerity in poetry, the poems deal with an array of themes including death, hope, romanticism, the road, loss, weather, and gambling.