Anne Stevenson, Four and a Half Dancing Men

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error
Four and a Half Dancing Men

, published by Oxford University Press in 1993 as part of the Oxford Poets Series, is Anne Stevenson’s twelfth collection of published poetry. It brings together thirty-six poems, written since the publication of

The Other House

, previously published separately in a range of periodicals and anthologies. The volume is dedicated to Mary Lucas, her husband Peter’s mother, and built around eight poems, collectively entitled “Visits to the Cemetery of the Long Alive”, dealing with the pain, sadness and anger of old age and approaching death, particularly as the poet had witnessed it in visiting Mrs Lucas in a nursing home for the elderly.

Many of the poems in Four and a Half Dancing Men were written when Stevenson was living part of each year in her

1266 words

Citation: Gordon, Ian. "Four and a Half Dancing Men". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 August 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=31611, accessed 29 March 2024.]

31611 Four and a Half Dancing Men 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.