The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster
The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster is Richard Brautigan's seventh poetry publication. A limited, signed, hard cover edition of fifty copies was issued simultaneously with the soft cover version of the first edition.
 First softcover edition | |
| Author | Richard Brautigan |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Edmund Shea |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Publisher | Four Seasons Foundation |
Publication date | 1969 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Softcover) |
| Pages | 108 |
| Preceded by | Please Plant This Book |
| Followed by | Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt |
The collection of ninety-eight poems includes thirty-eight that were previously uncollected. The rest were gathered from five of Brautigan's previous poetry publications.[1] In some cases, all of the poems from an earlier book were included in this volume.
The title poem uses just four lines to draw a parallel between the 1958 Springhill mining disaster in Springhill, Nova Scotia and the use by the author's lover of birth control pills.[2]
When you take your pill
it's like a mine disaster.
I think of all the people
lost inside of you.
"The Pill versus The Springhill Mine Disaster" (1968)[1]
References
- "Richard Brautigan > The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster". www.brautigan.net.
- Foundation, Poetry (September 27, 2019). "The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster by Richard Brautigan". Poetry Foundation.