AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

For this thesis, I am writing a collection of poetry that will be one hundred and nineteen pages. The title of this collection is misericordia and it tells the story of a man forced to wander the earth to escape increasingly apocolyptic weather that plagues any location he finds himself for longer than a day – from raindrops to thunderstorms to earthquakes and beyond. The poems document his daily struggles as well as his increasingly troubled faith. The themes of loneliness, endlessness, and work dominate the thesis as the man continues to struggle to find some comfort in a painful, exhausting world. Throughout the thesis, the Psalms of Exile are rewritten and adapted to his situation, documenting his faith from devout believer, to weary searcher, to renewed faith, to miserable cynic. Advisors/Committee Members: Donald Revell, Maile Chapman, Richard Harp, Elspeth Whitney.