Margaret Atwood

Dearly

taylor miles hopkins

We like the part where we get destroyed. 

A bit too straightforward for me. Climate poems were particularly really predictable. Two poems I liked were “Improvisation on a First Line by Yeats” and “Within.”

In Dearly, Margaret Atwood's first collection of poetry in over a decade, Atwood addresses themes such as love, loss, the passage of time, the nature of nature and - zombies. Her new poetry is introspective and personal in tone, but wide-ranging in topic. In poem after poem, she casts her unique imagination and unyielding, observant eye over the landscape of a life carefully and intuitively lived. While many are familiar with Margaret Atwood's fiction--including her groundbreaking and bestselling novels The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments, Oryx and Crake, among others--she has, from the beginning of her career, been one of our most significant contemporary poets. And she is one of the very few writers equally accomplished in fiction and poetry. This collection is a stunning achievement that will be appreciated by fans of her novels and poetry readers alike.

New Poems

ella

i 'read' this through audiobook on scribd. it's so beautiful and heartfelt. i always love margaret atwood's style. she doesn't use much of flourish difficult words and difficult metaphors but it's still deeply beautiful. she always nails to express and deliver the feelings and messages of her poems. and to the fact she is the one herself who reads all the poems in Dearly, i feel more connected with her and her poems. i have a few of my favorite favorites in this work, one of them is: Whales.

Amrie Cruz

Bilge Ince

Not for my taste. But listening to the poems from Atwood herself was beyond words.

Beatriz Pereira

I'm not a big fan of poetry. However Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite author's. A lot of this was heavy in a way that made you feel and almost cry. Touching on a lot of subjects of what it is to be a woman and what deprivation feels like. Loved how she narrates the audiobook that I listened to.

Isabela H 

For me, poetry books have always been a hit or a miss. Sometimes, I didn't understand what people saw in the random words scattered across a page. Other times, I couldn't understand how people COULDN'T be affected by a poem. 
Margaret Atwood's collection of poetry here was definitely in the second category - I highly recommend this book!! I think that there's a great mix of poetry in here so everyone will be able to get something out of it. This is also the first of Atwood's works that I have actually finished!
If you check this book out, know that my favorites were: If There Were No Emptiness, Cicadas, Songs for Murdered Sisters, Update on Werewolves, Table Settings, Invisible Man, and Blackberries. Go and find your own favorites!

cora rolfes 

if i had to just pick one i guess it’s 

soon the chrysanthemums will bloom, 
flowers of the dead, in France. 
Don’t think this is morbid. 
it’s just reality. 

OKAY AND ALSO 

the aliens arrive. 
We like the part where we get saved. 
we like the part where we get destroyed. 
why do those feel so similar? 
either way, it’s an end. 
no more being alive. 
no more pretend. 

but fr i felt on the verge of tears this whole time and i loved it. this is really depressing but also delicate and frank and i loved it so much.

Amanda Rocha

Margaret Atwood's new book of poems is just as amazing as her work in fiction, and reminds us that she is as much a poet as talented novelist. Her simple lines are steeped in meaning and paint a hauntingly fresh view of reality.

In Dearly, Atwood's first collection of poetry in over a decade, she touches on a variety of themes, from love and loss to the passage of time. Some of my favorite verses brought up themes of memory and time, something that Atwood often includes in her writing. Her new poetry is as introspective and personal as ever, but this collection really resonated with me personally. Atwood lost her husband last year after a long fight with dementia. My grandmother was diagnosed with it, and I can understand and relate to the pain of coping when someone you love is starting to forget who you are.

The poems move through the phases of life, "like moon phases", progressing in parts, like maiden to crone.

The very first poem, Late Poems, seems to set the tone for the collection with a reminder: It is never too late. You may not be able to change the past, but it is never too late to learn from the past. Nothing is meaningless, and it is never too late.

Some poems offer haunting warnings:

Were things good then?

Yes. They were good.

Did you know they were good?

No, because I was worrying

or maybe hungry, or asleep ...

"Oh, beware..." Beware of losing yourself. We must make good memories and not get mired down in worry and laziness. Appreciate where you are now, but know that you will not always be where you are now. We don't know the good ol' days until they are over, so make them last with the ones you love.

Some poems pose questions to the reader, like an existential personality quiz:

If birds are human souls

What bird are you?

or

If you were a song

What song would you be?

But my favorite lines were the lines on memory and time. In Dream the speaker makes clear comparisons between aging to the seasons: "you are young ... and it is summer" becomes "suddenly I'm older ... and it is winter". There are so many beautiful poems about the struggle of aging, fading, and forgetting. Letting go is difficult, but inevitable, and these poems serve as a sort of coping mechanism for dealing with loss.

The clock ticks and the day shrivels.

Dusk sifts down on us.

How long should I stay?

The language Atwood uses to express her losses is simple and straightforward, and that simplicity is what I enjoy most about her verses.  Quick but effective, Atwood’s poignant poems keep readers flipping through pages, getting lost in language.

Books of poetry should be regarded as of the most readable genre of our time. Reader’s attention spans are shorter than they have ever been before; the average person typically will read snippets of text on social media and advertisements throughout the day, but will not sit to read a whole book. Technology is changing our reading habits, and poetry offers a reading experience that imitates the way we read today. Short and simple verses mimic how we read snippets of literature throughout the day (like on Instagram or Twitter). This is the type of book that can be read in a day, and will leave readers returning to it forever.

Eliza Gonzalez

rage and hatred
 jealousy and fear

 so many sisters killed
 over the years, thousands of years

 killed by fearful men
 who wanted to be taller

 over the years, thousands of years
 so many sisters lost

 so many tears ...

(from: songs for murdered sisters)


I wavered a bit on how to rate this one. When I like her poems, I love them. When I dislike them, I dearly do. Her poems that focus on grief and death in particular I find the most compelling, but poets often produce their best work from sorrow. Most of the poems about nature and creatures, however, barring the ones focused on the pollution of Earth.... not my cup of tea. 

Some of my favorites from this collection include Ghost Cat, Shadow, Oh Children, Dearly, and Blackberries. I also had to wonder if there was intentional likeness drawn between Invisible Man and my personal favorite Atwood poem, Sumacs. I'll have to give them both a reread back-to-back soon, these possible sister poems.

I ended up deciding on 4 stars for this collection of poems, because I tend not to be fond of books I rate at 3 stars, and I do feel quite fond of several poems in this book.

The collection of a lifetime from the bestselling novelist, poet -- and cultural phenomenon Before she became one of the world's most important and loved novelists, Margaret Atwood was a poet. Dearly is her first collection in over a decade. It brings together many of her most recognisable and celebrated themes, but distilled -- from minutely perfect descriptions of the natural world to startlingly witty encounters with aliens, from pressing political issues to myth and legend. By turns moving, playful and wise, the poems gathered in Dearly are about absences and endings, ageing and retrospection, but also about gifts and renewals. They explore bodies and minds in transition, as well as the everyday objects and rituals that embed us in the present. Werewolves, sirens and dreams make their appearance, as do various forms of animal life and fragments of our damaged environment. Dearly is a pure Atwood delight, and long-term readers and new fans alike will treasure its insight, empathy and humour.

Poems

Rose Stanley

Love me some Margaret Atwood (especially The Blind Assassin), so when I found out she also writes poetry I had to check it out. I may also have been swayed by the gorgeous cover...

I think I still prefer her prose but would definitely recommend this collection.

Standout entries for me were
- Passports
- If there were no emptiness
- Double-entry slug sex (yep...that's in there. As it were)
- Songs for murdered sisters
- Digging up the Scythians
- Carving the Jacks
- The aliens arrive
- At the translation conference (obviously...)
- Sorcerer's apprentice
- The twilight of the gods
- Flatline
- Blackberries

Lucía RG

This was so good! Probably one of the best poetry collections I've read in a long time ✨✨

The aliens arrive.
Their leader is a giant head.
It lives in a large glass jar.
It wants to mesmerize us,
though lord knows what for.
Oh wait a minute.
It’s a metaphor.

Elska Bee

DNF @ 50%

There were only one or two poems that I actually liked but even those I didn't love. Normally this style of poetry is my jam in terms of structure, but I just felt meh about nearly all of them. I also wish there was any kind of system organising the poems. They're all about such wildly varying subjects, some more funny, some quite dark, and the order seems random to me. Maybe I'm thinking too much about it, idk.

I guess Margaret Atwood's poetry just isn't for me.

Berta Galindo

Margaret Atwood has made me cry for the first time with poetry. It is a wonderful collection of beautifully written poems. It discusses themes as climate change, feminism, change, death and growing up. I can say I couldn’t have enjoyed this poetry book more if it had been written differently.

I cannot lie I went in reading this book not enjoying it. The first few poems were boring. After that I drew more interested in the themes. Are usually don’t enjoy books about climate change because it scares me. This one however explore the themes perfectly. It shows a reality in the life we live in. But my favourite theme is growing up. I cannot say I have experienced this but Atwood makes me believe in her words.

If you like poetry and you like Atwood’s books I think you will enjoy this poetry collection.

Hayley 📖🌈💜🌸

3.75 stars. 
Margaret Atwood is mostly known for her fiction, but it’s her poetry that I love the most. She has such a way with words that just sucks you in and chews you up and spits you out. 
Favourite poem of this collection was ‘Dearly’.

Thank you so much Harper Collins/Ecco, and Edelweiss for the eARC.

The collection of a lifetime from the bestselling novelist, poet -- and cultural phenomenon Before she became one of the world's most important and loved novelists, Margaret Atwood was a poet. Dearly is her first collection in over a decade. It brings together many of her most recognisable and celebrated themes, but distilled -- from minutely perfect descriptions of the natural world to startlingly witty encounters with aliens, from pressing political issues to myth and legend. By turns moving, playful and wise, the poems gathered in Dearly are about absences and endings, ageing and retrospection, but also about gifts and renewals. They explore bodies and minds in flux, as well as the everyday objects and rituals that embed us in the present. Werewolves, sirens and dreams make their appearance, as do various forms of animal life and fragments of our damaged environment. Dearly is a pure Atwood delight, and long-term readers and new fans alike will treasure its insight, empathy and humour.

Jane Krauss

"Cat can get dementia, did you know?" 

Starting my week with poetry was the best decision to make. Reading it all in one sitting really gave me the big picture, but I don't think you can really take it in in the first read. I know I want to reread it. 

Margaret Atwood uses words in such a beautifully creative way; this poetry is no exception.

Evelyne Evita Felix

3.5/5 stars 


Dearly beloved, gathered here together
in this closed drawer,
fading now, i miss you.
I miss the missing, those who left earlier.
I miss even those who are still here.
I miss you all dearly.
Dearly do I sorrow for you.

Dearly

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