Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Department

English

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Antitype is a collection of poetry that examines childhood and adolescence through a lens of place and loss, while exploring both poetry and creative processes. The work presented begins by contextualizing antitype within the history of poetry, assessing influences of specific poets and poetic movements on my own work. Next, I share excerpts from my poetry collection to illustrate connections from its five different sections, each investigating facets of this overarching theme: my childhood affected by loss and as it contributes to my development as a poet. Section one examines how my childhood was shaped by place and family heritage. Section two delves into the loss of my sister, while also addressing, more generally, death and our reactions to it. Section three looks at the influence of my sister’s death on me as poet. Section four focuses on coming of age after loss, with poems that characterize my life during college. The final section examines romantic love, with poems that highlight the fears of loving and possibly losing someone when one’s life has been shaped by such a loss. This highly autobiographical collection aims to showcase the shared effects such loss, particularly loss in childhood, that people experience.

Advisor(s) or Committee Chair

Trini Stickle, Ph.D.

Disciplines

Creative Writing | Poetry

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Poetry Commons

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