The Devil's Dreamland by Sara Tantlinger

Within the collection, these poems seem a part of the larger narrative, but taken individually, it’s very clear that Tantlinger is using the history and horror of these events as commentary on the current crisis. This is evident in later poems like “Scapegoat” or “Preventative Measures,” in which public reactions and misinformation are explored. It is clear that Tantlinger is using the Bubonic Plague as a metaphor for the global reactions to the current COVID-19 crisis. Tantlinger demonstrates her skills as a poet with lines like these as she’s able to tap into not just a narrow emotional horror, but really delves into the whole range of human emotions surrounding an event like the plague. This sort of anxiety is just as haunting as any image of blackened, dead bodies or festering rats. However, even when she does, she’s able to tap into the human emotions of suffering and moral torment that individuals in the medieval times would feel, and forces her reader to participate in that anguish.

Tantlinger isn’t afraid to deal with the standard images of plague, either. Tantlinger’s ability to focus on unique imagery within the topic of the plague, and yet still create strong voices and personas in her poems, is what makes this collection stand out among the general horror poetry.

She very much captures the eeriness and the unknown in these early poems, and the visceral imagery she focuses upon really drives this tone forward:Īs even the underworld birds pale and die. She has clearly done her research and takes the bubonic plague back to Athens and Constantinople. Tantlinger’s Cradleland of Parasites is as much an education as it is a book of poetry. Her newest collection, Cradleland of Parasites, is no exception, and this take on the Black Death is a brilliant and chilling book of poetry.

Author of three poetry collections, including the award-winning The Devil’s Dreamland, Tantlinger is one of the vibrant new voices in horror poetry. Sara Tantlinger is a phenom when it comes to horror poetry. Cradleland of Parasites by Sara Tantlinger

The Devil's Dreamland by Sara Tantlinger