The preface to this collection, "Against Expectation: The Lyric Narrative," highlights the ways James Wright, Stephen Dunn, and C.K. Williams use narrative to strengthen their poems. Where My Own Grave Is is a collection of poems that uses narrative to engage our historical fascination with death.

Abstract Not Provided. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This thesis is a collection of poems which were written between 2011 and 2017. Much of my earliest work is in this collection, though, most all of it has been heavily revised over the years. The content of this collection begins with seven poems that address the death of my best friend and brother, Jon. These were some of the most difficult poems for me to write but ultimately, I found that the process, though intense, was cathartic. The rest of the collection addresses themes regarding class, place, substance abuse, mental health; including but not limited to: suicidal ideation, depression, family, social structure, politics, and anger. A great deal of the content is dark and melancholic in mood and moves through very deep depression at points. A few relationships I've had are addressed and wrestled with and emerge as two separate apologies of sorts. I also wrestle with the idea of home and living on the west coast. The final poem, "Choose Life" was inspired by the film Trainspotting and I felt it served the collection to have a poem that is loosely comparable to a reprise that ends the thesis with a more positive outlook on life.

Lucky Creature is a collection of poems that considers particular aspects of being human, specifically love, death, isolation, and the nature of knowledge. A primary concern is the body, explored as a vehicle for shame. The role of imagination as a means of escape is also paramount, leading always toward an act of transformation as a chance at immortality in an entropic universe where everything has a shelf life.

Thema der Arbeit sind die genealogischen Fürstenpreisgedichte Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal und Nóregs konungatal, eine Textgruppe aus dem Bereich der norrönen Skaldendichtung. Die Gedichte wurden vor allem im Kontext dynastischer Interessen in mittelalterlichen historiographischen Werken tradiert und sind in ihrer Datierung umstritten. Sie behandeln Genealogien norwegischer Herrschergeschlechter und die Königsreihe mit einem Fokus auf dem Tod der Fürsten. Mit der Verbindung der Aspekte Genealogie und Tod entziehen sie sich einer eindeutigen Klassifikation. Die Arbeit erfasst diese Textgruppe in ihren charakteristischen Merkmalen, ordnet sie literaturhistorisch ein und will zu einer präziseren Bestimmung der Texte beitragen. Sie gliedert sich in zwei Teile. Der erste Teil behandelt die literaturhistorischen Kontexte: Zum einen die Frage der Überlieferung von Skaldendichtung. Zum anderen werden die Gedichte in den Kontext genealogischer und enumerativer Literatur eingeordnet und zu verwandten Dichtungsarten in Beziehung gesetzt. Der zweite Teil der Arbeit besteht aus einer Analyse von Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal und Nóregs konungatal unter Berücksichtigung ihrer Überlieferung. Das wesentliche Ergebnis ist, dass sich die Vorstellung eines Texttyps genealogischer Skaldendichtung retrospektiv im 12./13. Jahrhundert entwickelt haben muss. Es zeigt sich, dass die Frage der Datierung der Texte nicht mehr zu beantworten ist, da die Texte in der Überlieferung umgestaltet wurden. Es wird deutlich, dass dieser Texttyp seine Ursprünge in einer mit dem Tod verbundenen poetischen Tradition hatte und die Texte im Zuge genealogisch-dynastischer Interessen die Form fanden, in der sie in der Historiographie überliefert wurden. Dort schließlich begegnen Ynglingatal und Háleygjatal als emblematische Vertreter wikingerzeitlicher Skaldendichtung. Die Arbeit zeigt, dass die überlieferungsgeschichtliche Perspektive ein unabdingbarer Teil der Analyse von Skaldengedichten sein muss. / The topic of this paper are the genealogical praise poems Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal and Nóregs konungatal, a text group within the Old Norse skaldic poetry. The poems were transmitted in medieval historiographic works, above all within the context of dynastic interests. The dating remains controversial. They deal with the genealogies of the Norwegian dynasties and the order of the kings, with a focus on the dukes’ deaths. By linking the aspects of genealogy and death, they elude a distinct literary classification. This paper covers this text group in its characteristic features, classifies it in a literary-historical context and aims at contributing to a more precise determination of the texts. It is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the literary-historical contexts, firstly with the issue of the transmission of skaldic poetry. Then the poems are analysed within the context of genealogical and enumerative literature, and are seen in connection to related kinds of poetry. The second part of the paper is an analysis of Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal and Nóregs konungatal with particular focus on their transmission. The main result is that the concept of genealogical skaldic poetry as literary genre developed retrospectively in the 12th/13th centuries. It can be shown that the issue of dating the texts cannot be answered definitively since the texts have been altered in the course of their transmission. It becomes apparent that this text type had its origins in a poetic tradition which is related to death, and which assumed the form in which it was passed on in historiographical works mainly due to genealogical and dynastic interests. Here Ynglingatal and Háleygjatal represent an emblematic representation of the viking-age skaldic poetry. The paper shows that the perspective of medieval transmission of skaldic poems needs to be an indispensable part within the analysis of that literary genre.