Harlot (poetry)
Encyclopedia
Harlot is the 2007 poetry
anthology
by Jill Alexander Essbaum
. It was published by No Tell Books. It has 39 poems which focus on issues of God, sex, and death. This combination of Christianity and sexuality is a hallmark of Essbaum's work, and all reviews commented on it. It was Essbaum's fifth collection of poetry overall. H.L. Hix wrote “one hears [in Harlot] Herbert and Wyatt and Donne, their parallax view of religion as sex and sex as religion … their fondling and squeezing of language.”
Some of the more commented-upon poems in the collection are the title poem, "Heart", "Folie à Deux", "Ménage à Trois", "Bad Friday", and "Tryptych", which originally appeared in Coconut Eight.
, where guest editor Bruce Covey complimented the "brilliantly sexy poems" and singled out Essbaum as "contemporary poetry’s best punster, a skill evidenced within 'Triptych'."
Mike Snider saw Essbaum perform several of the poems at the Westchester Poetry Conference, and called it a "powerful work, sometimes heartbreaking, and a lot of fun along the way."
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
by Jill Alexander Essbaum
Jill Alexander Essbaum
Jill Alexander Essbaum is a Christian erotic poet distinguished as the author of the 1999 Bakeless Prize winner in poetry, Heaven, the 2005 collection of sonnets, Oh Forbidden, and the full length collections Harlot and Necropolis...
. It was published by No Tell Books. It has 39 poems which focus on issues of God, sex, and death. This combination of Christianity and sexuality is a hallmark of Essbaum's work, and all reviews commented on it. It was Essbaum's fifth collection of poetry overall. H.L. Hix wrote “one hears [in Harlot] Herbert and Wyatt and Donne, their parallax view of religion as sex and sex as religion … their fondling and squeezing of language.”
Some of the more commented-upon poems in the collection are the title poem, "Heart", "Folie à Deux", "Ménage à Trois", "Bad Friday", and "Tryptych", which originally appeared in Coconut Eight.
Critical Reviews
The collection was favorably reviewed in The Best American PoetryThe Best American Poetry
The Best American Poetry series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems.The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year...
, where guest editor Bruce Covey complimented the "brilliantly sexy poems" and singled out Essbaum as "contemporary poetry’s best punster, a skill evidenced within 'Triptych'."
Mike Snider saw Essbaum perform several of the poems at the Westchester Poetry Conference, and called it a "powerful work, sometimes heartbreaking, and a lot of fun along the way."