Summer Sale! Save 25% off a BookBrowse Membership, offer ends soon!

Biography in Verse

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Darwin by Ruth Padel

Darwin

A Life in Poems

by Ruth Padel
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (7):
  • First Published:
  • Mar 31, 2009, 160 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Oct 2012, 160 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Biography in Verse

This article relates to Darwin

Print Review

As reviewer Marnie Colton points out in her blog post at BookBrowse, biographies in poetry form allow for freedom of expression that a more constraining non-fiction prose form might not. Marnie calls the biography-in-verse "a dynamic form that allows poets to revisit the lives of their subjects through imagery, rhythm, and metaphor instead of the more rigid bounds of chronology that biographers must follow. Considering that biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs usually make a strong showing on bestseller lists, the poetic analogues to these forms deserve a wider audience and also provide an ideal introduction to newcomers wishing to dip a tentative toe into the rushing waters of poetry."

ShannonShannonIt is not just Darwin who has been the subject of this specialized genre. A member of the Lewis and Clark expedition received a similar treatment in Shannon: A Poem of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, while author Margaret Atwood experimented with the form in her look at Susanna Moodie, the frontierswoman who migrated to Canada from England.

Arguably no other subject is a better match for a biography-in-verse than poet Slyvia Plath. Through a series of short poems culled from the defining incidents of Plath's life, poet Stephanie Hemphill carved a biography of the tortured poet who eventually committed suicide in 1963.

Filed under Books and Authors

Article by Marnie Colton

This article relates to Darwin. It first ran in the October 17, 2012 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Ghostwriter
    by Julie Clark
    From the instant New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell comes a dazzling new thriller.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Ordinary Love
    by Marie Rutkoski

    A riveting story of class, ambition, and bisexuality—one woman risks everything for a second chance at first love.

  • Book Jacket

    Making Friends Can Be Murder
    by Kathleen West

    Thirty-year-old Sarah Jones is drawn into a neighborhood murder mystery after befriending a deceptive con artist.

Who Said...

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

C K the C

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.