“A major poet remakes the language, as Auden wrote, and in doing so remakes the world, and this is certainly what Elizabeth Knapp does magnificently in The Spite House. Knapp’s is a language filled with leaps and breathless connections that take us through history from the Bone Church in Kutna Hora to the Dead Sea, confronting crises that range from cutting down a tree to the sometimes unspeakable horrors that she finds a way to speak about. Here is a world remade to include an ever-expanding time and space where Charon might ferry us across Lake Como or Medusa visit Hawaii. Continue Reading →