Orpheus & Eurydice: A Lyric Sequence

Gregory Orr

“How can I celebrate love / now that I know what it does?” So begins this book-length lyric sequence which reinhabits and modernizes the story of Orpheus, the mythic master of the lyre (and father of poetry) and Eurydice, his lover who died and whom Orpheus tried to rescue from Hades. Gregory Orr’s spare, elegant verse brilliantly tells the story. The book design for Orpheus & Eurydice received the Certificate of Merit for Internal Design from Bookbuilders West.

Paperback: $12.00 list price

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ISBN: 9781556591518

Format: Paperback

When Eurydice saw him

When Eurydice saw him
huddled in a thick cloak,
she should have known
he was alive,
the way he shivered
beneath its useless folds.

But what she saw
was the usual: a stranger
confused in a new world.
And when she touched him
on the shoulder,
it was nothing
personal, a kindness

he misunderstood.
To guide someone
through the halls of hell
is not the same as love.

About the Author

Gregory Orr is the author of twelve collections of poetry, most recently The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write (Norton 2019). Milkweed Editions recently reissued his memoir, The Blessing (2019). His prose books include A Primer for Poets and Readers of Poetry (Norton, 2018) and Poetry as Survival (University of Georgia Press, 2002). At the Dodge Poetry Festival in 2018, he premiered a fifty-minute song/poem cycle, “The Beloved,” with the Parkington Sisters. He’s been interviewed by Krista Tippett for …

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Reviews

“A reader unfamiliar with Orr’s work may be surprised, at first, by the richness of both action and visual detail that his succinct, spare poems convey. Lyricism can erupt in the midst of desolation.” –Boston Globe

“Orr’s poems are soulful and insightful. They touch the heart of the human experience.” –Sarah McKim, from a “Reader Comment” card