The Origins of Tragedy and Other Poems

Kenneth Rosen's poems are, at turns, idyllic, comic, conciliatory, passionate. He finds his imagery in nature, in history and literature, in contemporary political discourse and in mythology. He finds a thread with artists from the past who like the poet himself, perpetually seek to make sense of the turmoil of life. In this, his seventh collection, Rosen's diverse subjects--childhood, sex, politics and music--illustrate the full breadth of his poetic vision.

Kenneth Rosen began teaching at Gorham State College (now known as the University of Southern Maine) and has been a Professor of English since 1981. His first collection of poems, Whole Horse, was selected by Richard Howard for the Braziller Poetry Series. Rosen spent a sabbatical semester as Balkan Scholar at the American University in Bulgaria teaching American poetry and 20th century fiction, and returned there again as a Fulbright professor. A second Fulbright award brought him as Senior Scholar to Minya University in Upper Egypt. His sojourns in Eastern Europe and the Middle East have had a major impact on his teaching and writing. For several years he has developed courses in the aggressively hybrid literary and cinematic culture of globalism represented by "magic realism." He participated in an evening of Balkan poetry at MIT in the fall of 2002, and has volunteered his poetic and editorial services to Serbian, Turkish and Egyptian writers for whom English is a second language.