Metamorphosis
Keywords:
Matthew Diomede, poetry collection, lyric poetry, family and memory, Italian-American identity, surreal imagery, Dante, transformation, grief and aging, contemporary poetryAbstract
Gabrielle Grilli reviews Matthew Diomede’s poetry collection For Father and Many Other Things, emphasizing its use of surreal, image-driven lyric to explore memory, family, and personal transformation. Grilli argues that the collection’s most effective poems generate emotional tension through grotesque and unexpected imagery, particularly in their representations of parents, Italian heritage, religion, and nature. The review attends closely to Diomede’s recurring contrasts between mother and father figures, day and night imagery, and themes of beginnings and endings, situating these patterns within broader traditions of myth, religion, and Dantean allusion. While praising Diomede’s ability to compress narrative and affect into brief lyric forms, Grilli also offers measured critique of moments where lineation and diction weaken the poems’ impact. Ultimately, the review presents For Father and Many Other Things as a cohesive poetic meditation on growth, loss, and the evolving relationship between memory and identity.
