Penny Dreadful, Shannon Stewart

In her poem, “Witness,” Shannon Stewart entreats the reader to gaze upon “the twin flat lands/ of death and desire./ You undress in both./ In both you expire.” The focus of Stewart’s second collection is firmly fixed on the intersection of lust and death.  Penny Dreadful (named for the genre of Victorian pulp fiction) unflinchingly investigates scandals, prostitution, cases of missing women, and crime scenes.

This collection is to be praised for its relevance, cohesiveness, and disquieting brevity.  Stewart’s short, dramatic lines call to mind headlines; this is absolutely fitting, as she draws much of her material from news articles, horoscopes, obituaries, and tabloids.  Many of her poems reference prostitutes and the infamous Pickton murders of Vancouver.  In “West Coast Reduction LTD.,” Stewart chillingly writes, “Pig-meat ; prostitute./ At the rendering plant/ he dropped off loads/ of entrails, bones, blood.”  In the striking “Some of Us,” Stewart catalogues, “Some of us whittled ourselves to down to bone….some so beautiful it took all day to appear/ like that, radiant as jell-o, coiffed as a prairie./…harlot, courtesan, geisha.”

The strongest poems in Penny Dreadful are those with multiple sections, devoted to a singular theme.  “Jane” is the most memorable of these poems, and in its 11 sections, Stewart delves into the lives of famous Janes: Tarzan and Jane (“Don’t think she’s all biscuit/ and bone china.”); Dick and Jane; Jane Seymour (the third wife of Henry the Eighth); Jane Doe.

While the poems inspired by tabloids are not as compelling as those that draw from actual crimes, Stewart does provide comic relief throughout the collection.  For instance, in “Page 5—Girl Next Door!” she demands, “Clarification, please./ Next door to what?/ Next door to the Implant/ Factory, I might believe.” Dark, intense, and disturbing, Stewart’s Penny Dreadful is made all the more powerful by fresh imagery, embedded rhymes, and a unified vision.