Samuel Menashe is a 20th century poet who is well known for writing about his Jewish heritage. He, unfortunately, did not receive critical acclaim for his work until the later years of his life when he received the “Neglected Master’s Award”, which allowed him to publish his books on a much wider scale. In his poem The Shrine Whose Shape I Am Menashe uses the central theme of religion to develop smaller sub themes of the body and mind, death, and identity. Although the theme of my exhibit is poems that connect personal identity with collective history, I found this poem fit that category because the speaker connected religious figures to his own being by calling himself a shrine. This poem is different than most that we see because it uses such a provocative metaphor, using the pure body to symbolize a place of worship, in order to relate his beliefs back to the audience.

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