Louise Bogan was a poet and critic who was incredibly successful during the 20th century. Her style is described as subtle and restrained, influenced by authors like Henry James and George Herbert. Her poems are personal but not in the same way as the Confessional poets.
‘To A Dead Lover’ is apowerful and reflective meditation on the nature of loss as the poet thinks about a lover who has died and how this has affected their life. Their grief moves into acceptance with the passage of time.
The dark is thrown
Back from the brightness, like hair
Cast over a shoulder.
I am alone,
‘Medusa’ by Louise Bogan describes an encounter the speaker has with the eyes of Medusa and the eternal results of that meeting.
When the bare eyes were before me
And the hissing hair,
Held up at a window, seen through a door.
The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead
Formed in the air.
Bogan’s ‘Juan’s Song’ questions love’s illusions, contrasting wise skepticism with foolish belief, pondering who truly gets deceived by love.
‘Song for the Last Act’ by Louise Bogan describes the complicated and emotionally confining relationship that exists between a speaker and their listener.
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