Modern Social Science Research

Louise Glück, an American poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature, is celebrated for her later works that explore themes of old age. Her 2021 poetry collection, Winter Recipes from the Collective, delves deeper into the motif of old age and elevates the spiritual dimensions in her poetry. The Chinese imagery in the poetry, such as “bonsai” and the“Album of Pheasants”, not only injects new ideas into the poet ' s creation but also expands the interpretive space of her poems. This article utilizes the figure-ground theory from cognitive poetics to analyze Winter Recipes from the Collective by examining the representation of the figurative plants and the figurative themes. It investigates how Glück reconstructs self-worth in the face of adversity, and thereby unveils the poet's transcendent perspective on life and death, emphasizing the value of the present moment.

Figure-ground theory; Louise Glück; Winter Recipes from the Collective