Having It Out with Melancholy

American poet Jane Kenyon wrote “Having It Out with Melancholy” towards the end of her career. The poem originally appeared in the November 1992 issue of Poetry Magazine and then re-appeared in Constance (Graywolf Press, 1993), the last poetry collection published during her life.

“Having It Out with Melancholy” is a long lyric poem broken into nine sections, weaving in and out of fragmented narrative moments, observations, and flights of fancy throughout the piece. With this format, Kenyon reveals how her depression influences and manifests in all aspects of her life. Kenyon endows the condition (and the poem) with demonic energy, allowing her to explore questions of free will, survival, God, the value of interpersonal connections, and what makes life worth living.

Poet Biography

Jane Kenyon made her mark on 20th-century American poetry due to quiet yet emotionally candid and philosophically complex poems. Editor Jon Tribble praised her poetry for its warmth and ability to “invite the reader into the pains and pleasures of everyday life” in The Washington Post.

Born in 1947, Kenyon grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The youngest child of two musicians, she displayed an intellectual ferocity as a young girl.