Worth
About This Book
These strong, multilayered poems test the transformative powers of dressmakers, jewelers, actors, and Darwin's darkest finches as they adapt to a changing world where the same train hurtles past them toward marketplace and death camp both. Throughout, many of the poems use inherited forms to tell their stories, but the inheritance here comes down damaged and threadbareâyet full of power.In Worth Robyn Schiff inquires about making, buying, selling, and stealing in the material world, the natural landscape, and the human soul. Opening with the renowned couture house of Charles Frederick Worth, the father of high fashionâ "The dress was so big, / one's hand is useless to take glass from table; / the skirt approaches while the hand is yet distanced" âand ending with the House of De Beers and a diamond thief named Adam Worthâ "You'll know me by my approach / I'm coming on foot with a diamond in my mouth" âSchiff moves from Cartier and Tiffany to the Shedd Aquarium, from Marie Antoinette to the Civil War, from Mary Pickford to Marilyn Monroe.
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Table of contents
- Part One
- Part Two
- Part Three
- Part Four
- Notes