18 pages 36 minutes read

Woodchucks

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1972

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Summary and Study Guide

Overview

“Woodchucks” was written by American poet, novelist, and memoirist Maxine Kumin. Born to a Reform Jewish family in 1925, Kumin identified as Jewish Calvinist as an adult. Kumin reached adulthood during World War II, and her future husband served in the army.

Kumin’s poetry often focuses on domestic scenes in her rural New England. Her simple and straightforward language and subject matter often result in comparisons to poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Frost. Kumin’s work is often grouped with Transcendentalism, Ethnopoetics, and Ecocriticism.

Among Kumin’s most recognizable poems, “Woodchucks” was published in 1972 and uses allegory to address questions about how the Holocaust happened. The mundanity and speed of the speaker’s turn to violence are, Kumin suggests, inherent human qualities that make widespread hate and genocide possible.

Poet Biography

Kumin was born in 1925 in Germantown, Pennsylvania to Jewish parents. Kumin was the youngest of four siblings and was the only girl. Kumin first attended a private Catholic school next door to her family's house. In third grade, she began attending a public school because her father did not think private schools prepared students for the demands of the real world.

From 1942-1946, Kumin attended Radcliffe College and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree.

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