19 pages • 38 minutes read
Linda PastanThe Coming on of Night
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
"You are Odysseus" by Linda Pastan (1999)
In this poem, published in the 1999 collection Carnival Evening, she writes from the point of view of Penelope, wife of Odysseus. Many feminists consider Penelope to be an example of a powerful woman working within the constraints of a male-dominated society. By comparing her life to that of Penelope, Pastan is defining herself as a feminist. She too is working within the constraints of a traditionally female-held role of wife and mother.
“Why are Your Poems so Dark” by Linda Pastan (2011)
In this poem, Pastan responds to the critique that her poems are too dark. She notes that when “God demanded light, / he didn’t banish darkness”; she also uses similes and metaphors that link some of her subject matter to elements of nature. She notes that even the moon is dark most of the time, and so is ink. It suggests that the “dark” subjects she writes about are just as natural and important as the light subjects.
“The Cossacks” by Linda Pastan (2002)
In “The Cossacks,” Pastan describes watching a friend “preparing for next year’s famine with wine / and music.” It examines the tension between the seeming warmth and fecundity of a comfortable life with the knowledge of illness and death.
Further Literary Resources
Under the Ordinary by Linda Pastan
During this literary festival, Linda Pastan reads and discusses some of her work from her most recent books. Several of these poems Pastan wrote in direct response to critiques and questions she’s received about her work. The poems as well as the brief introductions Pastan gives them can serve as insight into her belief system and poetic process.
The Post-confessionals: Conversations with American Poets of the Eighties by Earl G. Ingersoll and Judith Kitchen (1989)
This book is a collection of craft discussions with “Post-confessional” poets of the 1980s. The introduction by Rubin provides an overview of what Post-confessional poetry is, and how it differs from Confessional poetry. In an interview with Linda Pastan, the poet discusses her relationship to feminism and how she considers her poems to be feminist.
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By Linda Pastan
