Penelope: The Story of the Half-Scalped Woman--A Narrative Poem (Contemporary Poetry Series)

"The poet’s journey into the past and another culture, fired by eponymous inspiration, leads to discoveries, a new appreciation of lost moments. To bridge three centuries and create a verbal portrait though a picture is lacking is quite an achievement. Naturally, this effort will be compared to John Berryman’s great poem about Anne Bradstreet, but to no harm."--David Ray"In this fascinating sequence Penelope Scambly Schott poignantly re-imagines a devastating story in language that brings together the sensibilities of centuries distant in time but not, at their most intimate, in feeling. She invokes her namesake with urgency and tact, a remarkable combination."--Rosellen BrownThis brilliant tour-de-force narrates the life of a woman shipwrecked in the 1640s on the shores of modern-day New Jersey, axed in the belly, half-scalped and left for dead by the Lenape Indians, then nursed back to health by them and taken into the tribe. And that’s only the beginning. Penelope Scambly Schott has carefully researched the facts and woven them into a poetic page-turner. She cites her sources, provides a glossary and, best of all, indicates what is fact and what is fiction. Her technique is well chosen: the interior monologues, mostly of the heroine, Penelope Kent van Princis Stout, and, in a few poems, those of her namesake, the author. A more distant Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, is also invoked. The poems take us directly into the mind and heart of a strong woman, who is extraordinary partly because she thinks she is ordinary. With craftsmanship and feeling, Schott has limned unforgettable characters whose lives transcend the mostly ignoble history of settler-Native American relations.Penelope Scambly Schott is the author of three previous collections of poems, most recently The Perfect Mother, which won the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry. She has also been awarded four fellowships by the New Jersey Council on the Arts.

Literature & Fiction

Schott, Penelope Scambly

Poetry

University Press of Florida

"The poet’s journey into the past and another culture, fired by eponymous inspiration, leads to discoveries, a new appreciation of lost moments. To bridge three centuries and create a verbal portrait though a picture is lacking is quite an achievement. Naturally, this effort will be compared to John Berryman’s great poem about Anne Bradstreet, but to no harm."--David Ray
"In this fascinating sequence Penelope Scambly Schott poignantly re-imagines a devastating story in language that brings together the sensibilities of centuries distant in time but not, at their most intimate, in feeling. She invokes her namesake with urgency and tact, a remarkable combination."--Rosellen Brown
This brilliant tour-de-force narrates the life of a woman shipwrecked in the 1640s on the shores of modern-day New Jersey, axed in the belly, half-scalped and left for dead by the Lenape Indians, then nursed back to health by them and taken into the tribe. And that’s only the beginning. Penelope Scambly Schott has carefully researched the facts and woven them into a poetic page-turner. She cites her sources, provides a glossary and, best of all, indicates what is fact and what is fiction. Her technique is well chosen: the interior monologues, mostly of the heroine, Penelope Kent van Princis Stout, and, in a few poems, those of her namesake, the author. A more distant Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, is also invoked. The poems take us directly into the mind and heart of a strong woman, who is extraordinary partly because she thinks she is ordinary. With craftsmanship and feeling, Schott has limned unforgettable characters whose lives transcend the mostly ignoble history of settler-Native American relations.
Penelope Scambly Schott is the author of three previous collections of poems, most recently The Perfect Mother, which won the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry. She has also been awarded four fellowships by the New Jersey Council on the Arts.

The Perfect Mother

Snake Nation Pr

May the Generations Die in the Right Order

Main Street Rag

Penelope Scambly Schott's On Dufur Hill is a fascinating study of the great truths that can emerge from the smallest of places.

On Dufur Hill

Turning Point

Waving Fly Swatters at Angels

Penelope's goldendoodle, Sophia is quite the free spirit-so much so that she reminds the poet of Walt Whitman. In this jeu d'esprit, consisting of 30 poems, we enjoy a delightful peek inside the mind of a dog through her often entertaining & insightful "conversations" and adopted philosophies of her favorite poet (after her poet-owner, of course).ABOUT THE AUTHORSPenelope Scambly Schott is a past recipient of the Oregon Book Award for Poetry and author of a novel and several books of poetry, including her 2018 prizewinning chapbook November Quilt and most recently On Dufur Hill about a small wheat-growing town in central Oregon.Sophia Schott Sweetdog is a four-year-old white goldendoodle, the niece of Lily Schott Sweetdog who co-wrote Lily and Rumi: A Lovestory.Mister Walter Whitman is a greatly admired nineteenth-century American poet who wrote Leaves of Grass.

Sophia and Mister Walter Whitman

Poetry Box

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Books by Schott, Penelope Scambly