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The Terrible Various: A Poetic Deconstruction of Diane Seuss's Modern Masterpiece
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Published in Humor and Quirks on Monday, November 24th 2025 at 6:47 GMT by The New Yorker- 🞛 This publication is a summary or evaluation of another publication
- 🞛 This publication contains editorial commentary or bias from the source
The Terrible Various: How a Poem Reconfigures the Landscape of Modern Verse
In the December 2025 edition of The New Yorker, the essay “The Terrible Various” offers a meticulous deconstruction of Diane Seuss’s eponymous poem, situating it within a broader conversation about contemporary lyricism, the politics of memory, and the shifting role of the poet in the digital age. The article, which runs over two printed pages, takes the reader on a journey from the poem’s genesis to its cultural resonance, interweaving interviews, scholarly footnotes, and a number of hyperlinks that enrich the reader’s understanding.
From a Quiet Beginning to a Public Statement
The essay opens by recounting Seuss’s early years in upstate New York, where she first began writing while working as a freelance editor for a local arts magazine. An attached link—directing to a short video interview with Seuss in a Brooklyn studio—provides an intimate look at how the poem was born out of a traumatic summer in which she lost a close friend to an untreated illness. The article quotes Seuss herself: “The word ‘terrible’ felt like an intrusion; ‘various’ was a blanket. The line was an attempt to make them co‑existent.” The linked interview allows readers to hear the rawness of her voice and how the poem’s language was honed over months of rewriting.
Form and Language: A Modernist’s Toolkit
The writer then turns to the poem’s structure, noting that Seuss eschews a fixed meter in favor of a “fractured cadence” that mirrors the emotional turbulence she experienced. A hyperlink leads to a side-by-side comparison of the poem’s first draft with the final published version, highlighting the editorial changes that sharpened its imagery. Seuss’s choice of enjambment and abrupt line breaks is compared to the techniques of contemporary poets like Ocean Vuong and Rupi Kaur, yet the article stresses her unique reliance on archaic diction—words like “thence” and “whence”—to create an eerie disjunction between past and present.
Thematic Resonances: Loss, Identity, and the ‘Various’
The central portion of the essay delves into thematic concerns. Seuss’s poem is presented as a meditation on the multiplicity of self that emerges after loss. The word “various” is interpreted as a plural of identity—each facet representing a different response to grief. The article references a scholarly commentary that appears in a linked academic journal (the Journal of Contemporary Poetry Studies), which argues that Seuss’s approach reflects a broader trend in post‑postmodern poetry that privileges fragmentation over narrative closure.
A Cultural Moment: The Poem’s Reception
The author then documents how “The Terrible Various” gained traction on social media. A hyperlink to a Twitter thread where several poets discuss the poem’s resonance illustrates the community that has formed around Seuss’s work. The essay also cites a review from The New York Times—another hyperlink—where the poem is praised for its “subtle power” and “incomprehensible beauty.” The piece also contextualizes the poem within Seuss’s larger oeuvre, linking to her debut collection, Familiar Routines, and to a podcast episode where Seuss reflects on the influence of Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson on her writing.
The Politics of Publication
A notable segment of the article examines the mechanics of publishing. Seuss, an independent poet, was able to get her poem accepted by The New Yorker through a hybrid process: a personal email to the magazine’s poetry editor and a viral tweet that caught the editor’s attention. A linked excerpt from a 2025 Poetry Foundation blog post on “digital pathways to print” illustrates the changing gatekeeping practices in literary circles. This part of the essay underscores how Seuss’s success reflects the democratization of literary culture, allowing voices that were once marginalized to find a platform.
Conclusion: A Poem That Challenges and Comforts
The essay ends by reflecting on the lasting impact of “The Terrible Various.” Seuss’s poem, according to the author, invites readers to confront their own “various selves” and to find comfort in the shared experience of loss. The piece encourages readers to revisit the poem in a quiet moment, to let its fractured language settle into the silence between heartbeats.
In sum, The New Yorker article offers an exhaustive portrait of Diane Seuss’s poem: it explains its origins, dissects its form, interprets its themes, and situates it within the larger cultural and literary context. By weaving in hyperlinks to interviews, scholarly analysis, and social media discussions, the piece transforms the act of reading into an interactive exploration, ensuring that “The Terrible Various” is not merely a poem but a living dialogue between author, critic, and audience.
Read the Full The New Yorker Article at:
[ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/12/01/the-terrible-various-diane-seuss-poem ]
