Meredith Martin ’97

Alumnae Poet

Meredith Martin

Meredith Martin ’97 is an Associate Professor at Princeton University, where she teaches the poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries. Her book The Rise and Fall of Meter: Poetry and English National Culture, 1860-1920 won the MLA Prize for a First Book. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Fireweed, Hubbub, and West Coast Line. At Smith, she took poetry classes with Karl Kirchwey, Sharon Cadman-Seelig, Susan Van Dyne, and Pat Skarda. During her senior year, she helped Annie Boutelle write the proposal that resulted in the Poetry Center.

 

Select Poems

Lalagé

after Horace

 

An honest man has no need for weapons.

Through the cracked desert, the steepest mountains,

Even the thick banks of deadly rivers

No need. When I carelessly left this place,

Her name on my lips, all doubts left with me.

Even the thought of her thighs welcoming

Any wolf in sheep’s clothing. No thoughts

But her name on my lips and I could be

At the farthest station of this grim earth,

Waiting for a train that will never come

Or scorched and longing on the horizon

Of a cruel dawn, shelterless, and her name

On my lips will revive me, Lalagé.

My blood sings the echo of her sweet laugh.