The Language of Fire: Joan of Arc Reimagined

Free verse poems written in the first person tell the familiar tale of the medieval teenage peasant prophesied to liberate France from England. Hemphill (Hideous Love) refers to Joan as Jehanne—as the book’s subject herself signed it—and covers her young life, beginning at age 13; her interactions with France’s leaders; her subsequent military victories; her capture by the English; and her trial for heresy and subsequent burning at the stake at age 19. The heroine’s early years are imagined filled with angst and frustration (“It’s not as if I ask to be/ the girl on the margins”), while her later adolescence brims with certainty about her call and mission as she travels among the soldiers she leads, braves repeated threats, and suffers battle wounds. An author’s note explores liberties taken with the historical record, such as condensing the three voices that Jehanne reported hearing into one. Extensive historical detail will prove fatiguing for most readers even as Hemphill’s interpretation of known events, including Jehanne’s argument that she be released from an arranged marriage and vivid renderings of her long imprisonment, bring a sense of frail humanity to this outsize historical figure. Ages 13–up. [em](June) [/em]