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Virginia Tech

The Petting Zoo

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

In light of its title, ""The Petting Zoo,""? many of the poems in this collection exist on the page as animals, domestic ones mostly like cats and dogs and birds. Animals that have been tamed and trained to eat out of bowl or Petri dish, shit in certain places, and animals that have grown accustomed to the habitual pet and good good bird affirmation of owner. Katy wanna cracker? To be looked at. To be fed. To be loved. These poems are personal. They are an attempt to articulate the desires of a speaker who is in a constant state of trying to understand the world and the obsessive concerns that decorate her life: think memory, think past, think brother, think sex, think nature, empathy, imagination, abortion, old dog, abortion, love, all of which show up time and time and again throughout the collection. Touch and to be touched, to be whole and yet to break. These poems, perhaps, approach what it means to be alive, and even more specific, what it means to be alive and working through the aftermath of the past and day-to-day that for the speaker often feels broken and incomplete.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Fine Arts
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Creative Writing
Department dc:contributor.department
English
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2010

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Jensen, Lauren Suzanne
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Hicok, Robert G.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Gardner, Thomas M.
  • Meitner, Erika S.

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en_US

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-04302010-162007
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/77490

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Jensen, Lauren Suzanne. The Petting Zoo. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/77490