Date of Award
Spring 4-29-2022
Document Type
Honors Project
Degree Name
Bachelor of Liberal Studies
Department
English and Linguistics
Department Chair or Program Director
Richards, Gary
First Advisor
Bylenok, Laura
Major or Concentration
English (Creative Writing Concentration)
Abstract
This chapbook is a series of poems that explore what it is like living with mental illness. It is a collection of ten poems, inspired by the nine circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno. The reader is led on a journey through the mind of the author, each poem providing a modern interpretation of each circle: Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery. This journey into a “hell of the mind’s making” explores the themes of identity, reality, societal expectations and pressures, and self-doubt through the use of form, structure, and image. The collection ends with a poem titled “Age of Man (Revisited),” embodying the cyclical nature of learning to cope with and understand depression, anxiety, and trauma. Order and structure was essential to making this collection flow and convey the feeling and theme of each poem. This collection is ultimately a culmination of the author’s creative work.
Recommended Citation
Harvey, Amber M., "Inferno of the Mind" (2022). Student Research Submissions. 453.
https://scholar.umw.edu/student_research/453