Culture

I Swear This Poem Didn’t Make Me Cry

Published

1 year ago

January 24, 2025

Poems aren’t pictures, but sometimes they try to make us see, and to make us feel in ways we might associate with acts of seeing. Some poems evoke the drama of famous paintings or the frozen beauty of Grecian urns. This one dwells on a more private image, a family snapshot, and on the elusive emotions and memories that live inside it.

And there is a real picture.

George Oppen and his daughter, Linda.

Mary Oppen, via New Directions

Who are we looking at? This candid photo of George Oppen and his daughter, Linda, was taken in the early 1940s, many years before “From a Photograph” was written, at a time when Oppen was a former and future poet. Is that an apple in Linda’s hand? It’s hard to tell. Maybe the fruit was a metaphor all along.

In the early 1930s, as part of a cluster of poets who called themselves Objectivists, Oppen published a formally ambitious book (“Discrete Series”) and tried to run a small publishing house. Then in 1934 he stopped writing altogether, a hiatus that would last a quarter century. In that time, he worked as a tool-and-die maker, a furniture designer and a labor organizer; he fought in World War II; and, with his family, he lived in Mexico as a political exile during the McCarthy era. In 1958, the Oppens returned to the United States and George returned to poetry.

None of that information is, strictly speaking, relevant to this poem. One of the reasons Oppen gave up poetry was to keep politics out of it. His aesthetic allegiances made him wary of personal confession. Objectivism (which had nothing to do with Ayn Rand’s political philosophy) was an aesthetic grounded not in psychology or sentiment but in a cleareyed reckoning with the material facts of the world.

A photograph, though, is a special kind of object. It’s made — the old, predigital kind, anyway — of paper and silver emulsion, and also of less tangible substances: light; time; memory; love.

We’re looking at a family portrait. It isn’t a selfie. Someone is behind the camera, a person whose presence quietly suffuses the poem.

That would be Mary Oppen.

Mary and George Oppen in 1928.

George Oppen Sr., via New Directions

She and George met at Oregon State University in 1926. On their first date, they stayed out all night, which got them both kicked out of school. They would be together for the next 58 years, until George’s death in 1984. Linda was their only surviving child, born in 1940, after the Oppens had endured a series of stillbirths and a crib death.

In 1978, Mary published “Meaning a Life,” a memoir about the collaborative work of their couplehood — as artists, as activists, as parents. “From a Photograph” is an artifact of that collaboration and a tribute to its power.

According to an old friend of theirs, George and Mary once had a pair of binoculars that they cut in half, so that they could look at the same thing at the same time. Of course such perfect symmetry of vision isn’t really possible, but it is present in this poem as an ideal of creativity: The poem, like the child, is something the two of them made together.

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Culture

Try This Quiz on Thrilling Books That Became Popular Movies

Published

3 days ago

February 23, 2026

Press Room

Try This Quiz on Thrilling Books That Became Popular Movies

Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about printed works that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions and more. This week’s challenge highlights thrillers first published as novels (or graphic novels) that were adapted into popular films. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the books and their screen versions.

Culture

Test Your Knowledge of the Authors and Events That Helped Shape the United States

Published

1 week ago

February 16, 2026

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Test Your Knowledge of the Authors and Events That Helped Shape the United States

Welcome to Lit Trivia, the Book Review’s regular quiz about books, authors and literary culture. In honor of Gen. George Washington’s birthday on Feb. 22, this week’s super-size challenge is focused on the literature and history related to the American Revolution. In the 10 multiple-choice questions below, tap or click on the answer you think is correct. After the last question, you’ll find links to exhibits, books and other materials related to this intense chapter in the country’s story, including an award-winning biography of the general and first U.S. president.

Culture

Video: How Much Do You Know About Romance Books?

Published

2 weeks ago

February 13, 2026

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Video: How Much Do You Know About Romance Books?

Let’s play romance roulette. No genre has dominated the books world in the last few years. Like romance, it accounts for the biggest percentage of book sales, their avid fan bases. Everyone has been talking about romance as a Book Review editor and as a fan of the genre myself, I put together a to z glossary of 101 terms that you should know if you want to understand the world of romance are cinnamon roll. You may think a cinnamon roll is a delicious breakfast treat, but in a romance novel, this refers to a typically male character who is so sweet and tender and precious that you just want to protect him and his beautiful heart from the world. Ooh, a rake. This is basically the Playboy of historical romance. He defies societal rules. He drinks, he gambles. He’s out on the town all night and is a very prolific lover with a bit of a reputation as a ladies’ man. FEI these are super strong, super sexy, super powerful, immortal, fairy like creatures. One of my favorite discoveries in terms that I learned was stern brunch daddy. A lot of daddy’s usually a male love interest who seems very intimidating and alpha, but then turns out to be a total softie who just wants to make his love interest brunch. I think there’s a misconception that because these books can follow these typical patterns, that they can be predictable and boring. But I think what makes a really great romance novel is the way that these writers use the tropes in interesting ways, or subvert them. If you can think of it, there’s probably a romance novel about it. Oops, there’s only one bed. This is one of my personal favorite tropes is a twist on forced proximity. Characters find themselves in very close quarters, where inevitably sparks start to fly. Why choose is the porkulus dose of the romance world. Sometimes the best way to resolve a love triangle is by turning it into a circle, where everyone is invited to play. Oops, we lost one spice level. There’s a really wide spectrum. You can range from really low heat or no spice, what might also be called kisses. Only then you start to get into what we call closed door or fade to Black. These books go right up to the moment of intimacy, and then you get into what we call open door, which is more explicit. And sometimes these can get very high heat or spicy and even start verging into kink. There’s one thing that almost every romance novel has in common. It’s that no matter what the characters get up to in the end, it ends with a happily ever after. I say almost every romance novel. Sometimes you’re just happy for now.