Stichomythia n. /stɪkəʊˈmɪθɪə/ Etymology: modern Latin Greek στιχομῡθία, στίχος STICHOS n. + μῦθος speech, talk. In classical Greek Drama, dialogue in alternate lines, employed in sharp disputation, and characterized by antithesis and rhetorical repetition or taking up of the oppo...
Stichomythia n. /stɪkəʊˈmɪθɪə/ Etymology: modern Latin Greek στιχομῡθία, στίχος STICHOS n. + μῦθος speech, talk. In classical Greek Drama, dialogue in alternate lines, employed in sharp disputation, and characterized by antithesis and rhetorical repetition or taking up of the opponent’s words. Also applied to modern imitations of this.
—Oxford English Dictionary (2016)
Having attended the Jesuit Creighton University, and studied poetry with the Benedictine-educated Irish poet James Liddy at UW-Milwaukee, it is not surprising that in his poems Farrell reflects certain aspects of these two religious orders’ discourse. In Farrell’s colloquial/narrative poems, we can see the “composition of place” so important in the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises; while the Benedictine concern with liturgical language is evident in those poems which adopt a more disjunctive/symbolic style. Whilst they sometimes mock conventional religiosity, the poems express an underlying longing for the unlimited transcendental horizon.
—Jim Chapson
I would like to refer to Tyler’s engaging and convivial character. He is an admirable and humorous colleague, one easy to work with and to get work from. He has been ready to help his peers and his adviser. There have been many reports of his strong teaching as a Graduate Assistant. Socially he was a focal point at the gatherings of graduate students. Yours sincerely,
—James Liddy
Professor of English. UW-Milwaukee (2001)
Stichomythia is a grand toast to love, friendship, merriment, and pleasure in place. Like a good drinking song, each poem wells up in ecstatic fellow feeling as Farrell’s sensuous, intimate voice pours down the page, streaked with the lightning of literary influences and compatriots whom he has swept into a communion of the reverent, illuminating what it means to be alive.
—Cynthia Belmont
It seems to me that these poems are immensely strengthening: a companionship among us.
—George Oppen
Born in Illinois in 1973, Tyler Farrell received his undergraduate degree at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska where he studied with Eamonn Wall. In 2002 he received his doctorate from UW-Milwaukee where he studied with James Liddy. He has published two books with Salmon Poetry: Tethered to the Earth (2008), and The Land of Give and Take (2012); and has contributed a biographical essay on James Liddy for Liddy’s Selected Poems (Arlen House, 2011). Farrell is currently a visiting assistant professor at Marquette University, and lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife Joan and their two children. His Morrissey imitations are said to be legendary.
