Date of Award
5-31-2026
Document Type
Campus Access Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Jill McDonough
Second Advisor
Shangyang Fang
Third Advisor
Askold Melnyczuk
Abstract
This collection presents original poems and experimental translations which consider the nature of language, the language of nature, and the intermediary space, investigating their intersections as sites of meaning-making. A central theme and rhetorical device in the poems is movement; particularly, walking through the city of Boston. The sequence loosely follows the trajectory of a mobile lyric speaker-subject. Through continual momentum, expressed at both formal and thematic levels, the speaker draws connections between different actors in the environment, demonstrating that meaning is made through exploring relationships between objects and actors, human and more-than-human. Movement and perception become fundamentally intertwined; and poetry becomes a site in which this network can be navigated.
Recommended Citation
McCabe, Abigail, "Dead Letters: Poems" (2026). Graduate Masters Theses. 958.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/masters_theses/958
Comments
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