4.0
Scriptorium
ByPublisher Description
National Poetry Series Winner
A collection of poems exploring religious and linguistic authority, from medieval England to contemporary Appalachia—with a foreword by Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith
The poems in Scriptorium are primarily concerned with questions of religious authority. The medieval scriptorium, the central image of the collection, stands for that authority but also for its subversion; it is both a place where religious ideas are codified in writing and a place where an individual scribe might, with a sly movement of the pen, express unorthodox religious thoughts and experiences.
In addition to exploring the ways language is used, or abused, to claim religious authority, Scriptorium also addresses the authority of the vernacular in various time periods and places, particularly in the Appalachian slang of the author’s East Tennessee upbringing. Throughout Scriptorium, the historical mingles with the personal: poems about medieval art, theology, and verse share space with poems that chronicle personal struggles with faith and doubt.
A collection of poems exploring religious and linguistic authority, from medieval England to contemporary Appalachia—with a foreword by Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith
The poems in Scriptorium are primarily concerned with questions of religious authority. The medieval scriptorium, the central image of the collection, stands for that authority but also for its subversion; it is both a place where religious ideas are codified in writing and a place where an individual scribe might, with a sly movement of the pen, express unorthodox religious thoughts and experiences.
In addition to exploring the ways language is used, or abused, to claim religious authority, Scriptorium also addresses the authority of the vernacular in various time periods and places, particularly in the Appalachian slang of the author’s East Tennessee upbringing. Throughout Scriptorium, the historical mingles with the personal: poems about medieval art, theology, and verse share space with poems that chronicle personal struggles with faith and doubt.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities7 Reviews
4.0
Arianna
Created 2 months agoShare
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“this collection will appeal to anyone into medieval manuscripts, music, monasteries, or Christian theology (so me!)”
Aaron Vowels
Created 7 months agoShare
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“This is an odd collection of poems. It’s almost as if there were two sets: medieval theology and Appalachian folk. The two, to my mind, don’t really fit well together, so the entire collection seemed a bit uneven. I did like several of the poems, particularly the ones dealing with the ‘old folks’ and the pigments used for illumination. It’s always nice to learn something. And, Range kept me going to Google to find a new-to-me word, event, or person. As well, Range’s use of words and rhyme is clever and almost rap-like at times. I just wish the overall collection had been more cohesive.”
Sam
Created 8 months agoShare
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Peyton
Created about 3 years agoShare
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Amy L.
Created about 5 years agoShare
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“This is a beautiful collection of poetry. I was drawn to it because of my own interest in medieval church history, so I was intrigued by the many poems that brought a sensuous, vibrant imagination to the detailed act of illuminating manuscripts.
But Range also balances these deeply academic poems with poems that highlight and celebrate her southern US upbringing. What this speaks to me is an underlying message that often the things (cultures, people, etc) that may be generally considered “simple” breathe an intelligence beyond what books and learning can offer, and we are fools if we are blinded to that by prejudice.
Some of my favorite poems are:
“Lampblack”
“Nicodemus Makes an Analysis”
“Anagram: See a Gray Pine”
“Vernacular Theology: Mechthild of Magdeburg”
“All Creation Wept”
“Shell White”
If I had to choose one that was my favorite of the collection, it would be “Vernacular Theology,” partly because it is just so beautiful, and partly because I minored in German Language in college and the way Range talks about the common language being holy too, and not only Latin, just strikes a chord as I think on Luther during the Reformation and how his efforts to translate the Bible into the language of his people shaped the German language as much as Shakespeare shaped the English language.
This is a book I definitely want to own in print, to linger over the poems and to be able to touch the words and pages.”
About Melissa Range
Melissa Range is the author of the poetry collection Horse and Rider (Texas Tech University Press, 2010) and the recipient of awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Antiquarian Society, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA), and the Rona Jaffe Foundation. Originally from East Tennessee, Range currently lives in Wisconsin and teaches at Lawrence University.
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