Josephine Balmer. The Paths of Survival.

 Josephine Balmer. The Paths of Survival. (United Kingdom: Shearsman Books, 2017). 

This is a collection of poems that explore the theme of survival in different forms and styles. It plays with form by using different techniques, such as free verse, rhyme, and traditional forms, to convey different emotions and perspectives. It is about the fragility of the written word, how fragments of Aeschylus’ Myrmidons survived, intercutting the dramatic monologues of all players in the preservation or destruction of the text. It starts at Sackler Library, Oxford and ends with the fragments and footnotes that contribute to the poems. It shows form supporting function in a creative exploration of how texts might survive, showing how texts become extinct or extant

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