We often hear that stories acquire new meanings through retelling. In the prosimetrum My Cloak Is Poetry—part collection, part textbook, part memoir—Rachel Hadas proves it as never before. The poems let you in on a lifetime of sage contemplation of what and how myths mean, and as you’re wondering where all this wisdom comes from, the prose essays come along like a friend and say, “Here, let me show you.”
— C. Luke Soucy
Like the classics which transmit it, mythology comes to us as an unsettled issue: its enduring freshness derives from its being revisited and renewed by each generation. In this compelling new collection of verse and prose, Rachel Hadas creates a kind of classroom without walls, in which we take part in, or play our parts in, the process of transmission. Here you will find a rich selection of poems and an equally rich array of essays, both of which illuminate myth, poetry, and the life of a poet dedicated to passing them on.
— Charles Martin
In My Cloak Is Poetry, the poet and classicist Rachel Hadas has created a stunningly original hybrid form comprising verse and prose directed toward an exploration of ancient myth. The verse is her own, written over the course of three decades, abetted by Hadas’s outstanding translation of Victor Hugo’s 1888 poem “Boaz Asleep,” about the characters in the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Ruth. My Cloak Is Poetry makes a persuasive case for the particular value to us today of the foundation texts of Western civilization.
— David Lehman
The wise and humane Rachel Hadas has done something extraordinary: she has combined in one volume exquisite poetry engaging with classical myths, profound interpretive reflections, and a zeal for using both creativity and interpretation in inspirational pedagogy. She has no equal in the practice of what in the poem “Demeters” she calls “rediscovering the humanity in the old stories.” Highly recommended.
— Edith Hall
