Abstract

The poems in The Sleepless Ouroboros are about the obsessions which come to define a person. These obsessions are memories, dreams, objects or ideas that cannot be separated from the whole. Poems such as "Thinking of Big Moe" and "It Begins with a Fox" grapple with the limitations of memory, while poems such as "The Python" and "Heirloom" counterpoint memory's weakness with the supposed permanence of physical artifacts. Depression and anger, the anxieties of identity and displacement, and representations of the people and animals that leave lasting impact on a life are all addressed as vital components of the completed speaker. In the middle of the collection "The Mad Scientist Sleeps" and "Through Milk and Oil" surround "Insomnia and Autocannibalism," reaching the core of the speaker's identity throughout the collection, imagined, present, or past. The collection, like its namesake the ouroboros, ends in the same place it begins. This cyclical motion through the collection seeks to bring the varying voices throughout into a complete, if conflicted whole.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2017

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Stap, Donald

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

English

Degree Program

Creative Writing

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0006568

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0006568

Language

English

Release Date

May 2022

Length of Campus-only Access

5 years

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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