The Book of the Dead

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"The Book of the Dead" is a long narrative poem written by Muriel Rukeyser, and appearing in her collection "US 1." Published in 1938, the poem deals with the Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster in Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, which Rukeyser visited with Nancy Naumburg in 1936 as part of her research for the poem.[1] The poem is a key example of the 1930s and 1940s tradition of documentary poetry and poetics.[2] The poem's title and inspiration emerges from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, with Rukeyser quoting or referencing the ancient text throughout the text.[3] The poem mixes and intersperses in a modernist manner testimony from the disaster, lines from the ancient Egyptian text, along with lines from the Biblical story of Absalom.[3] One of the literary influences of the poem is also "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot.[4]

1. ^ Thurston, Michael (2006). Making Something Happen: American Political Poetry between the World Wars. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. p. 172-173. ISBN 9780807849798.
2. ^ Lowney, John (2006). History, Memory, and the Literary Left: Modern American Poetry, 1935-1968. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. p. 37\. ISBN 9781587295089.
3. ^ a b Dayton, Tim (2003). Muriel Rukeyser's The Book of the Dead. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. pp. 24–27, 47–50. ISBN 9780826220639.
4. ^ Däumer, Elisabeth (2018). "'Wanting more from Mr. Eliot': Muriel Rukeyser, T. S. Eliot, and the Uses of Poetry". Textual Practice. 32 (7): 1181–1183. doi:10.1080/19306962.1945.11786232.