Range of Light - by Catharine Savage Brosman (Paperback)

About the Book

This new collection of lyrical and narrative poems is centered on the American west and southwest, from Wyoming to New Mexico to California. Brosman explores three different types of ranges here: mountain ranges, grazing ranges, and the scope and spectrum of light. Most of the poems focus on nature, especially landscapes and trees. However, there are also poems inspired by historical figures such as the explorer, Fremont. Brosman varies forms throughout throughout the collection from ragged-edged free verse poems to poems of rhymed quatrains in iambic pentameter. This transcendental collection is both serious and at times playful. Overall, it is a meditation on the natural beauty and resilience of America.

Book Synopsis

In Range of Light, Catharine Savage Brosman offers lyrical and narrative poems about the American West and Southwest, from Wyoming to New Mexico to California. She explores three different types of ranges--mountains, grazing ranges, and the scope and spectrum of light, a constant motif. Employing a variety of verse forms, she evokes the landscapes, animals, folk art, prehistoric peoples, and historical figures of this captivating area. Scenes and objects are not inert, but humanized by the action of past figures or by observers, seeing the West, modifying it through their presence and being modified in turn: "Green emotion binds / the muscled landscape to our gaze." The region as a whole, with its tremendous differences and varied history, but shared identity, comes alive under Brosman's touch--to be experienced and admired.

About the Author

Catharine Savage Brosman's poetry collections include Places in Mind and The Muscled Truce, among others. A native of Colorado and a longtime resident of New Orleans, she is a professor emerita of French at Tulane University. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including La Nouvelle Revue Française, Europe (Paris), Critical Quarterly, and Sewanee Review.