Penelope
The Story of the Half-Scalped Woman--
A
Narrative Poem
by
Penelope Scambly Schott
Order
this Book now
This brilliant
tour-de-force narrates the life of a woman shipwrecked in
the 1640s on the shores of modern-day New Jersey, axed in
the belly, half-scalped and left for dead by the Lenape
Indians, then nursed back to health by them and taken
into the tribe. And that’s only the beginning.
Penelope Scambly Schott has carefully researched the
facts and woven them into a poetic page-turner. She cites
her sources, provides a glossary and, best of all,
indicates what is fact and what is fiction. Her technique
is well chosen: the interior monologues, mostly of the
heroine, Penelope Kent van Princis Stout, and, in a few
poems, those of her namesake, the author. A more distant
Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, is also invoked.
The poems take us directly into the mind and heart of a
strong woman, who is extraordinary partly because she
thinks she is ordinary. With craftsmanship and feeling,
Schott has limned unforgettable characters whose lives
transcend the mostly ignoble history of settler-Native
American relations.
Penelope Scambly Schott is the author of three previous
collections of poems, most recently The Perfect
Mother, which won the Violet Reed Haas Prize for
Poetry. She has also been awarded
four fellowships by the New Jersey Council on the Arts.
University
of Central Florida Contemporary Poetry Series
1999. 72pp. 5 ½ X 8 ½.
Glossary, historical appendix, references.
ISBN 0-8130-1638-X Cloth, $19.95s
ISBN 0-8130-1639-8 Paper, $12.95
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"The poet’s
journey into the past and another culture, fired by
eponymous inspiration, leads to discoveries, a new
appreciation of lost moments. To bridge three centuries
and create a verbal portrait though a picture is lacking
is quite an achievement. Naturally, this effort will be
compared to John Berryman’s great poem about Anne
Bradstreet, but to no harm."--David Ray
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