Pictures of the Floating World (2011)

Amy Lowell’s collection of poems entitled Pictures of the Floating World (1919) is a set of poignant haiku-like works. The title of the book is a literal translation of the Japanese word “Ukiyo-e”, which is a genre of paintings and woodcut prints dating back to the seventeenth century. The subject matter of such art works often include landscapes, historical tales, and images taken from theater. In a sense, they are vignettes frozen in time, and Lowell’s poems capture that property magically.