The Art of Dying (Volume 41) (The Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series)

Hate to tell you, but you’re going to die. / Quite soon. Me, too. / Shuck off the wisdom while it’s warm. / Death does no harm / To wisdom. Sarah Tolmie’s second collection of poems is a traditional ars moriendi, a how-to book on the practices of dying. Confronting the fear of death head-on, and describing the rituals that mitigate it, the poems in The Art of Dying take a satirical look at the ways we explain, enshrine, and, above all, evade death in contemporary culture. Some poems are personal - a parent tries to explain to a child why a grandfather is in hospital, or stages a funeral for a child’s imaginary friend - while others comment on how death figures in the news, on TV, and in social media. Some poems ask if there is any place left for poets in our rituals of memory and commemoration. A few examine the apocalyptic language of climate change. Others poke fun at the death-defying claims of posthumanism. A thoughtful and irreverent collection about serious concerns, The Art of Dying begins and ends with the fact of death, and strips away our euphemisms about it.Hate to tell you, but you’re going to die. / Quite soon. Me, too. / Shuck off the wisdom while it’s warm. / Death does no harm / To wisdom. Sarah Tolmie’s second collection of poems is a traditional ars moriendi, a how-to book on the practices of dying. Confronting the fear of death head-on, and describing the rituals that mitigate it, the poems in The Art of Dying take a satirical look at the ways we explain, enshrine, and, above all, evade death in contemporary culture. Some poems are personal - a parent tries to explain to a child why a grandfather is in hospital, or stages a funeral for a child’s imaginary friend - while others comment on how death figures in the news, on TV, and in social media. Some poems ask if there is any place left for poets in our rituals of memory and commemoration. A few examine the apocalyptic language of climate change. Others poke fun at the death-defying claims of posthumanism. A thoughtful and irreverent collection about serious concerns, The Art of Dying begins and ends with the fact of death, and strips away our euphemisms about it "Sarah Tolmie describes this book as "a contemporary Ars moriendi." It belongs to a rich tradition, going back to the Middle Ages and beyond, of 'Arts of ... ' books (loving, writing, painting, etc.) Compared to Trio, her previous book in MQUP's poetry series, this one is shorter - not just in its page count, but also because some of the poems are quite short, almost aphorisms. Unlike Trio, which was a collection of 120 sonnets, The Art of Dying is not married to a single form; it is basically satirical; and to an unusual extent for a poetry collection, it's more or less thesis-driven (arguing that our euphemisms and denials of death are nauseating and that the idea of a digital afterlife is folly). She adds: "A world of cheer, as you can intuit.""-- Provided by publisher "Sarah Tolmie describes this book as "a contemporary Ars moriendi." It belongs to a rich tradition, going back to the Middle Ages and beyond, of 'Arts of ... ' books (loving, writing, painting, etc.) Compared to Trio, her previous book in MQUP's poetry series, this one is shorter - not just in its page count, but also because some of the poems are quite short, almost aphorisms. Unlike Trio, which was a collection of 120 sonnets, The Art of Dying is not married to a single form; it is basically satirical; and to an unusual extent for a poetry collection, it's more or less thesis-driven (arguing that our euphemisms and denials of death are nauseating and that the idea of a digital afterlife is folly). She adds: "A world of cheer, as you can intuit.--Résumé de l'éditeur