Reunions with a Ghost Criticism

Ai
This Study Guide consists of approximately 26 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Reunions with a Ghost.

Reunions with a Ghost Criticism

Ai
This Study Guide consists of approximately 26 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Reunions with a Ghost.
This section contains 267 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the Reunions with a Ghost Study Guide

"Reunions with a Ghost" was first published in Ai's fourth collection of poetry, Fate (1991), where it was overshadowed by the new direction that the poet's work was taking. Most of the poems in Fate are dramatic monologues written from the point of view of famous figures in American culture, such as General Custer, Lenny Bruce, Jimmy Hoffa, and James Dean, and it was those poems that tended to catch the attention of reviewers. They stand in contrast to the narrator of "Reunions with a Ghost," who is an unnamed, ordinary woman, not an icon of American culture. In this respect, "Reunions with a Ghost" is closer to Ai's earlier work, in books such as Cruelty (1973) and Killing Floor (1979), which contain many poems written from the point of view of anonymous narrators who endure difficult lives.

Reviewers expressed reservations about the effectiveness of many of the dramatic...

(read more)

This section contains 267 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the Reunions with a Ghost Study Guide
Copyrights
Gale
Reunions with a Ghost from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.