The Commandrine and Other Poems

The brilliance of Joyelle McSweeney's poems is a given; what remains delightfully open to negotiation are its methodologies and its mien. In her second book McSweeney finds her subjects in the long form; The Commandrine is a verse-play that in nine scenes tells the story of sailors Zest, Coast, Ivory, and Irish, and their run-in with the Devil.