The Donner Party

This book-length poem surprised me and moved me deeply. The spare but vivid images are unforgettable, the humanity that Keithley is able to illuminate. It's a powerful and unique read.

The Donner Party is a good book length poem, which interweaves lyrical narratives that stride along at a quick yet even pace, like oxen over flat and dry ground with brief poems which provide emotional reality to the text. The prose is crisp and clear, and the lines have an engaging rhythm. The poet pays close attention to the sounds he uses, and they mesh well, with many close rhymes at the end of the 3 line stanzas, and intriguing internal rhymes as well. It is both a very sensual and dramatic work, yet at the same time possess a kind of puritanism and serious spirit in the voice of the narrator, the head of the Donner party. There are some seriosu questions aksed about the nature of the pioneer's interpretation of the American spirit( democracy, sens of American land) and broaches broader topics like the relationship that the 19th century expansion had with he natives and the environment. Ultimately, the answers to these questions meant life and death for the Donner party, and are still of great importance to our consideration fo our own lifestyles and goals today. I foudn it to be an intriguing and honest look intoa subject that quite often invites sensationalism, as well as being a solid piece of poetry that doesn't suffer the open sentimentality or suffocating politics that afflcit amny works about American history. At its best its iron wheels ring with the same clear tones as the brozne shields of the iliad, for the most part it sings with the prairie winds heard in the works of whitman, willa cather, larry mcmurtry and william carlos williams.