You Are Happy is a 1974 collection of poems by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood.

You Are Happy
First edition
AuthorMargaret Atwood
LanguageEnglish
SubjectPoetry
Published1974 (Oxford University Press)
Publication placeCanada
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages96
ISBN9780195402230
OCLC1160255

Contents

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The book contains the following poems:

You Are Happy

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  • Newsreel: man and firing squad
  • Useless
  • Memory
  • Chaos poem
  • Gothic letter on a hot night
  • November
  • Repent
  • Digging
  • How
  • Spring poem
  • Tricks with mirrors
  • You are happy

Songs of the transformed

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  • Pig song
  • Bull song
  • Rat song
  • Crow song
  • Song of the worms
  • Owl song
  • Siren song
  • Song of the fox
  • Song of the hen's head
  • Corpse song

Circe/Mud Poems

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• Composed of 24 unnamed poems

There is only one of everything

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  • Eating fire
  • Four auguries
  • Head against white
  • There is only one of everything
  • Late August
  • Book of ancestors

Reception

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A poetry review in The New York Times called "Songs of the transformed" "a splendid series of animal poems ... [able] to capture the natural world and yet to manage to make a larger statement.",[1] and Manijeh Mannani of Athabasca University found that it "continue[s] the same thread of feminist concerns [of her previous poetry] with only the concluding poems of the collection reflecting the optimistic connotation inherent in the title."[2]

You Are Happy has also been discussed by Poetry.[3]

Further reading

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References

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  1. ^ Thomas Lask (August 2, 1975). "A Work Lurking in the Lines". The New York Times. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
  2. ^ Manijeh Mannani. "Margaret Atwood: The Poetry". canadian-writers.athabascau.ca. Athabasca University. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
  3. ^ William H. Pritchard (February 1976). "Despairing at Styles". Poetry. The Poetry Foundation: 296, 297. Retrieved December 8, 2018. a joyless collection that seems professionally committed to "badtiming" it.
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Library holdings of You Are Happy