DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/FHYQ-F992

Defense Date

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

English

First Advisor

Gregory Donovan

Second Advisor

David Wojahn

Third Advisor

Shermaine Jones

Abstract

This collection is a synthesis of music as a theoretical framework for understanding life experiences, rejection of mortality’s negative connotations, and realization of the natural world’s expanse. I aim to challenge narrow definitions of music, life, and death, acknowledging the eternal or demonstrating how something has survived despite contrary belief. In my poems, I attempt to use music as a way of establishing a scene in which a speaker is able to realize something about the nature of life/death by experiencing music. The concept of counterpoint informs the poems’ tensions, contrasting subject matter, and sometimes form (through enjambment, caesuras, line length, and stanza breaks, etc.). Thus the title: “Species,” for while this term is associated with biology, it is also a type of musical counterpoint, specifically the layering of multiple melodies that incorporates dissonant tones.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

5-3-2022

Available for download on Saturday, March 16, 2222

Included in

Poetry Commons

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