All exits missing

This thesis contains two parts. The first part is a craft essay focusing on Susan Howe’s The Nonconformist’s Memorial and her use of ambiguity under the lens of Michael Riffaterre’s Semiotics of Poetry. The second part is a collection of poems forming a narrative around two grievers and two grieved. Francis mourns the life of Jenny, a friend who went missing. Francis begs for Jenny’s safety, while Jenny shares impressions from the one long night that is her life. Emmett, a man who died early and suddenly in his life, argues for his death’s purpose, while his friend, Chris, wanders without purpose around the U.S. rebuking his dead friend’s spirit.