Elisabeth Daumer, Author at Muriel Rukeyser

It Is There

First published in Breaking Open (1973) Yes, it is there, the city full of music, Flute music, sounds of children, voices of poets, The unknown bird in his long call. The bells of peace. Essential peace, it sounds across the water in the long parks where the lovers are walking, Along the lake with its island and pagoda, And a boy learning to fish. His father threads the line. Essential peace, it sounds and it stills. Cockcrow. It is there, the human place. On what does it depend, this music, the children's games? A long tradition of rest? Meditation? What [...]

Elisabeth Daumer2022-08-15T12:26:28+00:00August 15, 2022|Poetry, Writings|0 Comments

Trudi Witonsky, “Lecture by Mr. Eliot”: Some Context

Published 7/20/2022 The Vassar Encyclopedia's entry on Muriel Rukeyser contains part of a poem, originally published anonymously in the November 1933 issue of Con Spirito. Highly critical of T.S. Eliot, "Lecture by Mr. Eliot" was identified as Rukeyser's by Mary McCarthy, musing over the publication in her memoir, How I Grew: "The Scottsboro Boys. Yes, that sounds like Muriel and the reference would be to a reading by Eliot in Avery [Hall] during our senior year, when he gave us one of the early Possum poems" (260). This remembrance might seem like slim evidence, without available confirmation from any of [...]

Elisabeth Daumer2023-09-04T17:13:49+00:00July 11, 2022|Essays, Scholarship|0 Comments

Houdini Poetry Workshop

The poetry prompts and Poetry Drafting Workshop were developed by David Boeving, an instructor at Eastern Michigan University, in preparation for an YpsiWrites Poetry Wall. The poetry wall was displayed at EMU's Halle Library and at Ypsilanti's Riverside Arts Center, where Rukeyser's play Houdini was performed on Thursday, March 24, 2022. YpsiWrites is a community-focused writing organization which supports writers in the Ypsilanti community through writing-focused workshops, events, resources, and activities. Boeving-Houdini-Poetry-Prompts-1Download Boeving-Houdini-Poetry-Challenge-Drafting-WorkshopDownload

Elisabeth Daumer2022-05-11T14:28:16+00:00May 11, 2022|Pedagogy|0 Comments

Rukeyser’s Difficulty–ALA Conference Session, Chicago, Illinois, May 26, 2022

Thursday, May 26, 2022, 4:30--5:50pm, American Literature Association Conference, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois Organized by: Jacqueline Campbell, Princeton University Chair: Vivian Pollak, Washington University “The Promise of the Night-Flowering Worlds,” Trudi Witonsky, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater “‘Not even the bones of what I want to say’: On Muriel Rukeyser and Frances Wickes,” Casey Miller, Eastern Michigan University “Race, Place, and the Politics of Compassion in Muriel Rukeyser’s ‘The Gates’,” Jacqueline Campbell, Princeton University Panel Description For decades, much of Muriel Rukeyser’s writing remained unpublished, unfinished, or lost in the archive. Thanks to the recovery work of scholars such as Rowena [...]

Elisabeth Daumer2025-06-22T14:08:32+00:00April 13, 2022|Ruke Blog|0 Comments

A Conversation about Muriel Rukeyser and Harry Houdini

A conversation between Clinical Psychologist Carolyn Stroebe and Muriel Rukeyser Archive Administrator Elisabeth Daumer on Muriel Rukeyser's interest in Harry Houdini.

Elisabeth Daumer2025-06-22T14:01:05+00:00February 20, 2022|Ruke Blog|0 Comments

Order Muriel Rukeyser, Strength and Weakness

Muriel Rukeyser, Strength and Weakness by Carolyn S. Stroebe, Ph.D., is available on Amazon in paperback. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WZ8XLPT and e-book. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WJTKJ3T

Elisabeth Daumer2022-02-20T20:31:02+00:00February 20, 2022|Resources|0 Comments

Order the Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser

The Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser, edited by Janet E. Kaufman and Anne F. Herzog, were published in 2005 by the University of Pittsburg Press. To order, go to: https://upittpress.org/books/9780822959243/

Elisabeth Daumer2023-09-04T17:16:46+00:00February 20, 2022|Resources|0 Comments

Ecstacy of a Woman Detective

Published in Houdini (2002) I love using what I’ve got Love not being what I’m not— After a long time of one kind of living, And it was all right, it was really partly good, Full of one-sided things, And disturbing . . . and absorbing . . . almost Every day . . . But Then the new life came along, bringing The joy of reaching, of stretching, of being Effective— This is another place, this is another way, The ecstasy of a woman detective— And what I detect, what I really find Is your body-and-mind and your life and my [...]

Elisabeth Daumer2023-09-04T17:18:07+00:00February 7, 2022|Poetry, Writings|0 Comments

edaumer

About Elisabeth Daumer

Muriel Rukeyser

Additional Information

Recent Posts