{"id":99956,"date":"2016-06-30T17:29:27","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T21:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=99956"},"modified":"2016-06-30T18:51:08","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T22:51:08","slug":"babyland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/","title":{"rendered":"Babyland"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Van_Gogh_-_Marcelle_Roulin_als_Baby1\"<\/a>

Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Marcelle Roulin<\/i>, 1888.<\/p><\/div>\n

Kathleen Ossip\u2019s poem \u201cBabyland\u201d appeared in our Summer 2002<\/a> issue. Her latest collection is\u00a0The Do-Over<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Enter warily: here suavity reigns.
Enter solemnly; enter with great thirst.
Under the banner of the splayed lips, the first baby
\u2028staked a claim where the ravine crested and the wax-
white cups of the May flower never shut up.
The second baby failed to live up to its potential,
\u2028becoming a charmer who embodied the comic spirit.\u2028
At midday, in the dappled thicket,
the third baby simply poured out of you.
The fourth baby, nothing more than a figurehead,
broadcast, in Baltic languages, his many moods.<\/p>\n

Step aside: now they come faster and faster.
Newsboy baby delivers the morning paper:
Confessional baby tells all!<\/i>
Daughter-in-law baby disapproves
and hermit baby is just plain weird.
Sculptor baby lingers over the naughty parts.
A chorus of art-critic babies whimpers,
\u201cWhy\u2019d they take the tits out of all the pictures?\u201d
Here censorship reigns with its attendant amnesias,
in the desert where the gardenia blooms and in the fen
where vegetable marrows sop up s nutritive fluid.<\/p>\n

When night comes the babies scamper into their burrows,
deep under a moonscape of white pains.
Even town-crier baby turns in. Nevertheless,
the abandoned square is dominated by a screen
where favorite movies play in an endless loop.
Here reign the sneaky essentials: tread softly
and with respect to the perils you will suffer or cause.
In the blackening copse, for example, a mystery is unfolding\u2014
who, oh who, dropped the final baby?
Little matter, my darlings. Her unrelieved preciousness
would have slain you, just as nature intended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathleen Ossip\u2019s poem \u201cBabyland\u201d appeared in our Summer 2002 issue. Her latest collection is\u00a0The Do-Over.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1188],"tags":[35,9489,23060,16842,23063,23064,23065,1572,8306,23062,23061,4979],"class_list":["post-99956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-archive","tag-art","tag-babies","tag-babyland","tag-kathleen-ossip","tag-lots-of-babies","tag-make-believe","tag-moonscape","tag-motherhood","tag-portraits","tag-sarabande-books","tag-the-do-over","tag-vincent-van-gogh"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBabyland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A poem from the archive.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Babyland by Kathleen Ossip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"June 30, 2016 \u2013 Kathleen Ossip\u2019s poem \u201cBabyland\u201d appeared in our Summer 2002 issue. Her latest collection is\u00a0The Do-Over.\u00a0Enter warily: here suavity reigns. Enter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-30T21:29:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-30T22:51:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/van_gogh_-_marcelle_roulin_als_baby1.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1890\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1418\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kathleen Ossip\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kathleen Ossip\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kathleen Ossip\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c72a66fed70a517e9b5d680b14bedf40\"},\"headline\":\"Babyland\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-30T21:29:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-30T22:51:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/\"},\"wordCount\":279,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/van_gogh_-_marcelle_roulin_als_baby1-1024x768.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"art\",\"babies\",\"babyland\",\"Kathleen Ossip\",\"lots of babies\",\"make believe\",\"moonscape\",\"motherhood\",\"portraits\",\"Sarabande Books\",\"The Do-Over\",\"Vincent Van Gogh\"],\"articleSection\":[\"From the Archive\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/\",\"name\":\"Babyland\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/van_gogh_-_marcelle_roulin_als_baby1-1024x768.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-30T21:29:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-30T22:51:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"A poem from the archive.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/van_gogh_-_marcelle_roulin_als_baby1.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/van_gogh_-_marcelle_roulin_als_baby1.jpeg\",\"width\":1890,\"height\":1418},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Babyland\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c72a66fed70a517e9b5d680b14bedf40\",\"name\":\"Kathleen Ossip\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4bd83eb31388be5b02409475572a9ded0759e7c21b69cd875ad38ed111943f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4bd83eb31388be5b02409475572a9ded0759e7c21b69cd875ad38ed111943f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kathleen Ossip\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/kathleen-ossip\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Babyland","description":"A poem from the archive.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Babyland by Kathleen Ossip","og_description":"June 30, 2016 \u2013 Kathleen Ossip\u2019s poem \u201cBabyland\u201d appeared in our Summer 2002 issue. Her latest collection is\u00a0The Do-Over.\u00a0Enter warily: here suavity reigns. Enter","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2016-06-30T21:29:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-06-30T22:51:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1890,"height":1418,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/van_gogh_-_marcelle_roulin_als_baby1.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kathleen Ossip","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kathleen Ossip","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/"},"author":{"name":"Kathleen Ossip","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c72a66fed70a517e9b5d680b14bedf40"},"headline":"Babyland","datePublished":"2016-06-30T21:29:27+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-30T22:51:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/"},"wordCount":279,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/van_gogh_-_marcelle_roulin_als_baby1-1024x768.jpeg","keywords":["art","babies","babyland","Kathleen Ossip","lots of babies","make believe","moonscape","motherhood","portraits","Sarabande Books","The Do-Over","Vincent Van Gogh"],"articleSection":["From the Archive"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/","name":"Babyland","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/van_gogh_-_marcelle_roulin_als_baby1-1024x768.jpeg","datePublished":"2016-06-30T21:29:27+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-30T22:51:08+00:00","description":"A poem from the archive.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/van_gogh_-_marcelle_roulin_als_baby1.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/van_gogh_-_marcelle_roulin_als_baby1.jpeg","width":1890,"height":1418},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/30\/babyland\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Babyland"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c72a66fed70a517e9b5d680b14bedf40","name":"Kathleen Ossip","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4bd83eb31388be5b02409475572a9ded0759e7c21b69cd875ad38ed111943f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4bd83eb31388be5b02409475572a9ded0759e7c21b69cd875ad38ed111943f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kathleen Ossip"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/kathleen-ossip\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99956"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99965,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99956\/revisions\/99965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}