Five Poet Plays by William Roetzheim Level 4 Press
book review by J. Alpha
PLAYWRIGHT (speaking to the spirit of Emily Dickinson)...
but, with you, there are as many answers as there are people
seeking answers.
William Roetzheim’s Five Poet Plays is a clever integration of five full-length plays imaginatively shaped to artistically render the lives of five poets who he believes set the direction of 20th Century poetry: Ezra Pound, Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost and Amy Lowell.
Each of the five plays has a unique style, which effectively contributes to the diverse characterizations Roetzheim has intensively crafted to bring five distinct personalities alive on the page and ultimately the stage.
Pound... what the ever lovin’ ehill is going through the Serbo-Croatian head of this god damned putrid seahorse of a printer?
Frost... everyone's sanity hangs by a thread. It is up to each of us to save ourselves unaided.
Lowell... I was brought up like a man, and I'm glad for that—though I sometimes wish I had been born a man, just to be complete about it.
Eliot...the future is a faded and crushed flower, a wistful regret of those who are no longer here to regret.
Emily... they shut me up in prose, as when a little girl they put me in the closet, because they liked me "Still."
Additionally, Roetzheim's extensive research, covering the biographical and historical context of the lives of each of the five writers, was drawn from writing, documents, letters, diaries, radio broadcast recordings, transcripts etc. and then seamlessly merged into the engaging dramatic action of all five plays.
The distinctive creative forms and honest portrayals featured in each of Roetzheim's Five Poet Plays, will not only offer audiences rich insights into the respective poetic and literary works and lives of each of these extraordinary talents, but in much the same way a single poem can capture the essence of its poet, each of the five plays captures the talent and essence of Roetzheim.