Auden, W.H The Faber Book of American Verse (London: Faber and Faber Ltd, 1956)
More than 80 poets are included in this comprehensive anthology of poetry, selected and designed to give an English reader a near complete view of the evolution of American poetry, and its position in modern society. It is worth bearing in mind its publication date as, for this reason, poets of note such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac are excluded. The selections from poets such as Gertrude Stein and William Carlos Williams is small, with only two poems featured for each writer, and so it would be fair to say that the book focused on breadth, rather than depth. The lengthy introduction is interesting, as it examines the difference between English and American writing and aims to reassess both environments as cultural grounds of nourishment for the poetic works.
Steiner, Nancy Hunter. A Closer Look At Ariel - a memory of Sylvia Plath (London: Faber and Faber,1974)
This book was interesting for a biographical reading of Plath, especially when drawing links between the psychological character shown to the outside world and the poems that explored this character's internal world. The work takes the form of an account, of Hunter's personal acquaintance with Plath, and thus allows a more subjective opinion than one formed from the interpretation of records, facts and dates. Steiner writes "I suppose I have always known that some day I would write about Sylvia Plath", and her relationship, "As her roommate from 1954 to 1955, the critical period just after her first suicide attempt" allows a telling look into Plath's life at the crucial midway point between youth and maturity. There is an afterword by George Stade, which is badly written but raises some interesting points bridging the gap between the biography and the works. "Our knowledge of her suicide not only clarifies what she said and what she meant - it also certifies that she meant what she said."
Hyde, Lewis (ed) UNDER DISCUSSION: On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1984)
Lewis Hyde has collected the respomses to Allen Ginsberg, documenting everything from William Carlos Williams' early support, to Breslin's biographical analyses of 'Howl' and 'Kaddish'. The collection is interesting to see the range of responses over controversial works, and to examine the idea that a general opinion has not yet been formed, and that, decades later, the poems are still under debate. It is refreshing to see a range of themes, ideas, and issues explored, and the scope of critique is so broad it is almost entirely unrestrictive. Reading from such a wide variety of viewpoints, this book wil certainly enrich and reading of critical reception concerned with Ginsberg, and can be used as a good frame of reference for other Beat poets such as Kerouac.
Miles, Barry (ed) Allen Ginsberg, Howl (New York, Harper Perennial, 1995)
The description reads "Original draft facsimile, transcript, and variant versions, fully annotated by authoir, with contemporaneous correspondence, account of first public reading, legal skirmishes, precursor texts, and bibliography" This version of Ginsberg's work shows real insight into the construction of a piece of performance poetry, with handwritten notations suggesting alternative words and phrasings. It is always interesting to consider what a poem might have been, and the things selected and ommitted during its composition, and I've never seen a book quite like this before. It is hard not to feel a connection with the poems when you see them written in the poet's own hand, and, for a work that almost defines its genre of spontaneity and eloquence, it is interesting to see the editing behind the epiphanetic style.
Ginsberg, Allen. White Shroud (Middlesex: Penguin Books ltd.,1986)
Ginsberg's collection, White Shroud is interesting when considering poetic development, given that it was written between 1980 and 1985, 30 years after his 1955 writing of Howl, his masterpiece that was synonymous of an era. By reading Ginsberg's later work, we can assert whether it has value outside of these particular social politics. Ginsberg continues to experiment with poetic modes, and this collection sees a new form and structure on every page, with a tone as unapologetic as that of his earlier work. Poems such as 'The Guest' explicitly detail homoerotic sexual acts, and test the liberation of our modern bounds of censorship, begging you to compare it with that of the 1950s.
Martin, Robert K. The Homosexual Tradition in American Poetry. (USA: University of Texas Press, 1979)
Martin argues that there is an unnoticed thread of homosexuality recurrent in the past hundred years of American Poetry. Whitman is explored as the catalyst for this sexual consciousness, and in depth readings of Leaves of Grass, specifically the 'Calamus' cluster, assert his provision of a voice for this sexual liberation. The chapter 'Whitman, the Critics, and Homosexuality' is of great interest, as is 'Crane and Whitman', which directly points comparison between Whitman and Hart Crane, and explores The Bridge as a response to Whitman's example. The text goes on to discuss a comprehensive range of poets, with reference to Ginsberg, Duncan, Gunn amd Field, amongst others.
Sexton, Anne Love Poems (London: Oxford University Press, 1969)
I cannot beat Louis Untermeyer's description: "Anne Sexton's are the most curious and often contradictory love poems written in our time - or any other time. They are the hottest and the coldest, the most self tortured and the most self derisive, the wittiest and the wildest, impassioned, unequivocable, unashamed, compulsive and metaphor-mad. They are, as I've intimated, the most direct and disturbing love poems I've ever read, and only Anne Sexton could have written them" My favourites are 'The Interrogation of the Man of Many Hearts', and 'For My Lover, Returning to His Wife'. They have more depth than I feel Plath's poems do, something more than anger or angst.
Creeley, Robert. Poet to Poet: Walt Whitman(Middlesex: Penguin, 1973)
Penguin writes that 'The response of one poet to the work of another can be doubly illuminating...by their choice of poet, their selection of verses, and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their introductions, the poets of today thus provide an intriguing insight into themselves.' It was for this reason that I chose to read this collection, having enjoyed Auden's tour of Modern American Poetry. From the introduction, I learnt that Creeley has taken instruction from Whitman's sense of the 'personal'. "In my own joy or despair", writes Creeley, "I am brought to that which others have also experienced". What I found most interesting, however, was his linking of other poets, by their relation to Whitman. Creeley notes the feelings of Pound, Eliot, Williams, D H Lawrence, and Hart Crane, towards Whitman, offering opinions of reverence and aversion. From this introduction, I took valuable ideas about the influence of one poet to another, and a historical chart, or link, that could be drawn between movements.
Kumamoto Stanley, Sandra. Louis Zukofsky and the Transformation of a Modern American Poetics (US: University of California Press,1994)
An interesting reading of American poetry, placing Zukofsky as a marginal figure and exploring his influence on the development of more mainstream, popular, works. The book comments on Zukofsky's position as a "ghetto born son of immigrant Russian Jews" (p2) bridges the gap between American Modernism and Postmodernism, and explores his relationship with language poets such as Bernstein. The book is written in an accessible style, avoiding over-wordiness, and makes a valid argument on the difficulties of the appropriation of language. Chapter 3, 'Wut Wuz in the Air of Time', exploring Zukofsky's relationship with Whitman, Pound and Eliot is of particular interest, and debates Zukofsky's struggle with external comparison to these poets.
Nadel, Ira B. The Cambridge Companion to Ezra Pound. (Cambridge University Press, 1999)
Probably the most comprehensive text on Ezra Pound, it not only situates him in a modernist context, but also offers in-depth readings of his cantos, and several chapters exploring interpretations of themes and motifs, such as women and gender, antisemitism, politics and economics. 'Pound and the making of modernism' explores the poet's role in establishing the movement, asserting Pound's importance in championing Imagism, and placing it as a reaction to Victorian and Georgian poets. The chapter looks in depth at his editorial role and how he helped to shape and promote the work of poets such as Hemingway, Joyce and Eliot. This is furthered by Massimo Bacigalupo in his chapter 'Pound as critic', and also looks at his published works of literary criticism.
Friday 1 April 2011
Tim Minchin - Storm - A beat poem
I included this as a piece of performance poetry that I found funny. Although there is clearly more of a structural composition (with the internal rhyme) to it than the spontaneous works of Kerouac and Ginsberg, it retained the humour and the emphasis on delivery in order to connect to the audience. I thought it deviated slightly from typical beat poetry in that it defended a 'mainstream' societal view and ridiculed the alternative, doing this through elevated vocabulary which is not necessarily accessible. Either way, I thought it was an interesting view on a modern perception of what Beat poetry is, and showed the opinion that it was slightly pretentious (complete with prop of wine) rythmic speaking.
Monday 21 March 2011
Beat Poetics
The Beat poetics seemed different to the other works studied on the module, in the way that they seem to exist solely as a piece of performance poetry. Though the construction exists on a page, the product seems secondary in importance to its performance. It seemed, to me, to be better viewed as a script - Beat poetry was not literature to be read or studied in private, it was a part of the oral tradition.
I always found this an interesting anachronism, a reversion back to the ballads of old which would use poetry as a form, in order to remember long stories and pass down the tales of culture. Beat poets, instead of celebrating societal mythos, used poetry as a vehicle to react against political constraints, social literary expectations of American formalism, and the structured lyric poetry of the New Critics.
However, the measure of the line is still focused on speaking and the breath, with recital being the poet's aim. George Oppen, in his Of Being Numerous called the genre 'Dithyrambic', meaning:
1. a Greek choral song or chant of vehement or wild character and of usually irregular form, originally in honor of Dionysus or Bacchus. (Greek Gods of wine, fertility, and fun times)
2. any poem or other composition having similar characteristics, as an impassioned or exalted theme or irregular form.
3. any wildly enthusiastic speech or writing. *
It is for this reason, perhaps, that Beat poetry has come to be associated with Anti-Establishment art and counter-culturism. Spontaneity was essential, as Jack Kerouac chastised Ginsberg for his overuse of editing. This isn't poetry that has been pondered over forever, but an individual's train of thought. Beat poetry is social poetry, in that the audience are as exalted as the poet. Everyone in the room is an Artist, in the sense that the poetry comes not only in speaking, but in the interaction. People could, perhaps, draw reference to Roland Barthes' The Death Of The Author in this.
As a general rule, the 'Beat Generation' (A term coined by Kerouac) rose to renown in the 1950s, with Cold War threats at their height in America, and an experimentation with drugs and 'free speech' paving the way for the subsequent 'hippie' generation, which took on some elements of the expanding Beat movement.
*(source: dictionary.com [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dithyramb] accessed 21/03/11) italicised - mine.
I always found this an interesting anachronism, a reversion back to the ballads of old which would use poetry as a form, in order to remember long stories and pass down the tales of culture. Beat poets, instead of celebrating societal mythos, used poetry as a vehicle to react against political constraints, social literary expectations of American formalism, and the structured lyric poetry of the New Critics.
However, the measure of the line is still focused on speaking and the breath, with recital being the poet's aim. George Oppen, in his Of Being Numerous called the genre 'Dithyrambic', meaning:
1. a Greek choral song or chant of vehement or wild character and of usually irregular form, originally in honor of Dionysus or Bacchus. (Greek Gods of wine, fertility, and fun times)
2. any poem or other composition having similar characteristics, as an impassioned or exalted theme or irregular form.
3. any wildly enthusiastic speech or writing. *
It is for this reason, perhaps, that Beat poetry has come to be associated with Anti-Establishment art and counter-culturism. Spontaneity was essential, as Jack Kerouac chastised Ginsberg for his overuse of editing. This isn't poetry that has been pondered over forever, but an individual's train of thought. Beat poetry is social poetry, in that the audience are as exalted as the poet. Everyone in the room is an Artist, in the sense that the poetry comes not only in speaking, but in the interaction. People could, perhaps, draw reference to Roland Barthes' The Death Of The Author in this.
As a general rule, the 'Beat Generation' (A term coined by Kerouac) rose to renown in the 1950s, with Cold War threats at their height in America, and an experimentation with drugs and 'free speech' paving the way for the subsequent 'hippie' generation, which took on some elements of the expanding Beat movement.
*(source: dictionary.com [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dithyramb] accessed 21/03/11) italicised - mine.
Sunday 20 March 2011
Berryman Pastiche
The original:
(Go from 4.14)
Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
we ourselves flash and yearn,
and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatingly) "Ever to confess you're bored means you have no
Inner Resources." I conclude now I have no
inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
Peoples bore me,
literature bores me, especially great literature,
Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes as bad as Achilles,
who loves people and valiant art, which bores me.
And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.
The Pastiche:
The earth, friends, is dying. We must not say so.
After all, the climate changes, the sea ebbs
We ourselves ebb and change
and moreover, my father told me as a girl
(repeatingly) "Ever to profess the planet's extinction
means you have no right to
its resources" I can see now that I have no
claim to its resources, because I am dead.
Life bored me,
The planet bores me, especially its universe
Galilleo bores me, with his facts and theories
as bad as Newton.
Who loves science, and empirical truth, which bores me.
And the heavy winds, & vodka, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.
The pastiche was done using Berryman's original poem as a direct frame, as the form seemed too random to mimic creatively and still retain some reference. Instead, my main focus was to play with the ideas and feel of the poem, copying his reduction of grandiose themes to apathy. I found it difficult to mimic the confessional style without giving any of myself away, which is perhaps why it feels empty and hollow, and explains my choice to externalise the subject and focus on the environment rather than the internal. I felt that this poem was too obscure, too random to take anything of his character apart from a feeling of despondency and a self-frustration that entirely opposes the world he is describing, and comes across almost comic in its hyperbolism.
Admittedly, I have no idea what the purpose of the dog is in the poem, and thought it best to leave it as it was rather than trying to attempt to pastiche that as well. It seems to evoke a sense of loneliness, that it is leaving him behind for something of infinite possibility, but I didn’t understand why it was ‘somehow’, as though it was of some unknown but questionable purpose, nor of what relevance its leaving behind of its ‘wag’ is, apart from the fact that he appeared to quite enjoy saying the word in his video.
I found in hindsight that I had not mirrored Berryman's erratic grammatical mistakes, for example 'heavy bored' was replaced with 'died', which was simple and overdramatic but still made sense. I tried to convey the arrogance I felt his original poem to have, that figures such as Achilles are somehow inferior, and that the ‘gripes’ they had are of less consequence than his own. To play on this I used figures such as Galileo and Newton, who are infinitely great men, and yet ‘inferior’ in their dullness (though I don’t actually think this!)
The theme of the poem fits in with the melodramatic nature of the confessional poets. Nearly all of them seemed to kill themselves, and their poems seem to be depressing and maudlin, which is what I tried to parody in my attempt.
(Go from 4.14)
Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
we ourselves flash and yearn,
and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatingly) "Ever to confess you're bored means you have no
Inner Resources." I conclude now I have no
inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
Peoples bore me,
literature bores me, especially great literature,
Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes as bad as Achilles,
who loves people and valiant art, which bores me.
And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.
The Pastiche:
The earth, friends, is dying. We must not say so.
After all, the climate changes, the sea ebbs
We ourselves ebb and change
and moreover, my father told me as a girl
(repeatingly) "Ever to profess the planet's extinction
means you have no right to
its resources" I can see now that I have no
claim to its resources, because I am dead.
Life bored me,
The planet bores me, especially its universe
Galilleo bores me, with his facts and theories
as bad as Newton.
Who loves science, and empirical truth, which bores me.
And the heavy winds, & vodka, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.
The pastiche was done using Berryman's original poem as a direct frame, as the form seemed too random to mimic creatively and still retain some reference. Instead, my main focus was to play with the ideas and feel of the poem, copying his reduction of grandiose themes to apathy. I found it difficult to mimic the confessional style without giving any of myself away, which is perhaps why it feels empty and hollow, and explains my choice to externalise the subject and focus on the environment rather than the internal. I felt that this poem was too obscure, too random to take anything of his character apart from a feeling of despondency and a self-frustration that entirely opposes the world he is describing, and comes across almost comic in its hyperbolism.
Admittedly, I have no idea what the purpose of the dog is in the poem, and thought it best to leave it as it was rather than trying to attempt to pastiche that as well. It seems to evoke a sense of loneliness, that it is leaving him behind for something of infinite possibility, but I didn’t understand why it was ‘somehow’, as though it was of some unknown but questionable purpose, nor of what relevance its leaving behind of its ‘wag’ is, apart from the fact that he appeared to quite enjoy saying the word in his video.
I found in hindsight that I had not mirrored Berryman's erratic grammatical mistakes, for example 'heavy bored' was replaced with 'died', which was simple and overdramatic but still made sense. I tried to convey the arrogance I felt his original poem to have, that figures such as Achilles are somehow inferior, and that the ‘gripes’ they had are of less consequence than his own. To play on this I used figures such as Galileo and Newton, who are infinitely great men, and yet ‘inferior’ in their dullness (though I don’t actually think this!)
The theme of the poem fits in with the melodramatic nature of the confessional poets. Nearly all of them seemed to kill themselves, and their poems seem to be depressing and maudlin, which is what I tried to parody in my attempt.
Confessional Poetry
Confessional poetry seems in essence to be a form of life writing. Exploring the inner individual, the works could be seen as a personal form of therapy, or of an exploration of private experience. One can easily question Confessional Poetry's authenticity, afterall, poetry is a form of Art; Art by definition is artificial, and fine Art is a mastery of making the artifical appear natural. Even if the original experience, the emotions professed, were true, the act of writing them in a constrained form will automatically lend the work an artifice. Poetry, as a construction, will automatically assume a separate voice through the process of its construction. By putting emotion into the public sphere, it separates this captured snapshot of personality from the author, as assumptions of meaning will be overlaid by the reader. *
But, one could argue, is this not the very nature of anything Autobiographical? When we separate the word and explore its etymology, we get three elements:
But, one could argue, is this not the very nature of anything Autobiographical? When we separate the word and explore its etymology, we get three elements:
AUTO BIO GRAPHY
Autos: Meaning 'The Self' in Greek
Bios: Meaning 'Social life' in Greek - As life not in the natural world, but in one confined by social constructions
Graphy: Originating from 'Graphein', the Greek word for writing.
When the word is put together and formed into a genre, it is clear that the subject will be of an individual's written experience of being part of an organised social structure. It will explore the nature of interaction with the external, through internal reflection, into an external form; It is taking in the world, processing the feelings this experience gives you, and putting something that explains them back into the world. In the broadest sense, one could argue that this is the singular criteria all Confessional poetry must meet - a bridge in the gap between the external world and the internal individual.
*There's a really interesting section that looks into this, read 'Versions of the Truth', by following this link http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=NUCytyOEYbAC&oi=fnd&pg=PA263&dq=confessional+poetry&ots=0LwJQG7B9i&sig=h_LwV7jhMq5dpvdb0g2uZ_hrLIk#v=onepage&q=confessional%20poetry&f=false
Cameron, Spurr. Hsc Advanced English. 'Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters' (Pascal Press:2009) p261
Bridging The Gap, With Confessional Poetry
Our lecture today on Confessional poetics brought up the argument that the 'genre' was a reaction to the aesthetics of Modernism; The focus on the 'self' was expunged by Modernism, and yet was embraced wholeheartedly by poets such as Lowell, Sexton, Berryman, and Plath. While, to some extent I agree with the argument - for of course, over time poetry will evolve, and evolution comes from the diversification and adaptation of other ideas from established genres - I feel that it misses what, to me, was a large part of Modernism.
My understanding of Modernism largely came from a direct comparison to its offspring, Postmodernism, which conforms to my statement of poetic development. Whereas Modernism focused on a unity, a grand narrative, an inherent quality shared by humanity, Postmodernism focused on fragments, on disparation, on difference. Confessional poetry, to me, seems to straddle both of these ideas; With a reversion to the Poetic I, it allows a fragmented view of a fragmented individual, simultaneously appealing to that Modernist unity which allows empathy and connection. I spoke in an earlier post of Subjectivity, and the quest to enrich our worldview with the jigsaw pieces of individual identities, and I believe this is what Confessional poetry does. Not every human is the same, and we certainly have not had the same experiences, but an invitation to view the experiences of others, to see their innermost thoughts and feelings, allows us a more comprehensive view of what it is to be human. With any luck, we may not share Plath's pain or father issues, we may not find ourselves in Lowell's marital difficulties, but the knowledge that other people do feel and experience these things gives us a broader scope of the variants in emotion. As I have said before, it is emotion and empathy that connects us, and sometimes it takes a direct form to enable that connection.
My understanding of Modernism largely came from a direct comparison to its offspring, Postmodernism, which conforms to my statement of poetic development. Whereas Modernism focused on a unity, a grand narrative, an inherent quality shared by humanity, Postmodernism focused on fragments, on disparation, on difference. Confessional poetry, to me, seems to straddle both of these ideas; With a reversion to the Poetic I, it allows a fragmented view of a fragmented individual, simultaneously appealing to that Modernist unity which allows empathy and connection. I spoke in an earlier post of Subjectivity, and the quest to enrich our worldview with the jigsaw pieces of individual identities, and I believe this is what Confessional poetry does. Not every human is the same, and we certainly have not had the same experiences, but an invitation to view the experiences of others, to see their innermost thoughts and feelings, allows us a more comprehensive view of what it is to be human. With any luck, we may not share Plath's pain or father issues, we may not find ourselves in Lowell's marital difficulties, but the knowledge that other people do feel and experience these things gives us a broader scope of the variants in emotion. As I have said before, it is emotion and empathy that connects us, and sometimes it takes a direct form to enable that connection.
Friday 11 February 2011
The Subjective Veil of The Objectivists
The Objectivist poets were influenced by the works of Pound and Williams, specifically the ideas set forth by Pound's creation and championing of the Imagists. Pound's work for the magazine Poetry (edited by Harriet Monroe) allowed a model for subsequent avant garde writers to accept and react against, and writers such as Zukofsky and Oppen took elements of the Imagist contribution to free verse, and rejected the seemingly elitist preoccupation with mythology, classicism and intertextuality.
Zukofsky edited a manifesto for his poetic aesthetic aims throughout the entirety of his career, but it would be fair to say that the Objectivist poets were connected by a shared artistic ambition; Objectivist poetry was to be conceptional, in that it brought in many ideas and motives, and set purpose and meaning ahead of the works themselves. Objectivists were to see the poem as an object, as a construction, and a finished work should be secondary to this origin. Following precedents of the avant garde movement, an Objectivist should refuse the lyrical Poetic 'I', setting the poet's persona aside, and taking a theoretical focus, to deliberately astue a human connection. Reader engagement was to be challenged, as poetry would be unconcerned with narrative, focusing instead on language as a tool for this construction.
So what was the purpose, or reason behind, this ideology of the craft of poetry? The objectivist sought to show an object's true essence; that is, to showcase something as it truly is, rather than how you perceive it. The way I imagined it was that there is a universal, objective world, which everyone views from behind a veil of subjectivity. The Objectivists sought to show the reader something in the way it would be seen if that veil had been lifted, simultaneously showcasing the impossibility that it never can be. For the problem lies in the fact that this subjective veil is a construct of language. Language is the way that we see the world, and makes up our perception of it, because every word holds within it certain connotations.
Your understanding is made up from language, because it brings you into form, and gives you a form to fit things into. When you were a child, it would be fair to say that your memories started when you gained the ability to articulate your vision of things into descriptives. When this has been grasped you can truly connect to the world, as this subjective veil of language allows you to understand things, to fit them into some sort of framework and assert their qualities with signifiers.
Objectivist poets were aware of this inability to show the world without our veil, because language is ultimately a cage. You can try and strip back the language, to reduce it and make it clinical, but no matter how much you do this, you can never escape its signifiers - you will always attach connotations to the simplest of poems, and thus construct a narrative. In effect, you can reduce, but never be truly reductive.
To combat this, poets such as Zukofsky played with a technique called 'homophony', to interrupt our apprehensions, or preconceptions brought about by these connotations, by translating from how words sound and look from one language to another. A way to stop signification is to create new words, and use the textures of sound, layout and poetic construction to make a literary work not dependent on meaning from language.
One may ask why the poem, as a form, is used as a vehicle for this. Zukofsky wrote that poetry is good, because it calls attention to it's form and structure, in its artificiality. There is nothing inherently natural about a sonnet, for example. It is a work, like a sculpture, that has been carefully made, it is an object in that it is the literal craft of language, of language being used as a tool to make something beautiful within the restrictions of a set form (14 lines, with alternating ABAB rhyme scheme, usually ending in a couplet, normally with a romantic subject).
Poems invite discussion, whereas philosophy seeks to answer questions. Poetry is therefore closer to truth than truth itself, as it makes no assertions that it is true, which would only make it false. Grand Narratives such as religion, science and marxism, that seek to do this, are broken down, and subjectivism reigns instead. In this way, poetry is a microcosm of the world, for if you can understand how a poem works, you can understand how the world works. Why? because by calling attention to its own artificiality, it simultaneously does so to the world around it. This subjective veil of language causes the world to be a construction by many artists, we only get a picture of the world when, like building blocks, we arrange all of these perspectives of the world together, enabling us to see it in its entirety. This idea that we live in a world of fragments sets this manifesto in a postmodern framework.
And so, the resultant homphonic poetry, which seeks to challenge our preconceptions, is like nothing we have seen before. This is deliberate. Much like Picasso's artistic career, the technical lessons of poetry had to be learnt before they could be broken, for it is difficult to react with any merit when you are ignorant of what you are reacting against.
Members of our seminar group felt that works created from this movement did not constitute poetry, and as much as I didn't enjoy the poems themselves, I enjoyed the ideas behind them, which according to the Objectivist manifesto is the most important part of the eventual product anyway. I feel that the fragmented subjectivist elements of the manifesto correlate to my own views of poetry as a form of connection, and though the poems produced have no points of human touch, the ideas behind them do. By interrupting traditional concepts of perception, the objectivists challenged the reader to see the world in a new way, to see language in a new way, and to promote it as a tool for connection. The beauty of the world can be viewed through many eyes, and the world belongs, in this sense, to everyone. If these fragmented, personal perspectives replace an overarching, all encompassing but singular narrative, the world can only be seen in a richer, deeper entirety, and this promotes reason and value for the study of the English language, as the creator of the subjective veils which allow these contributory perceptions.
Zukofsky edited a manifesto for his poetic aesthetic aims throughout the entirety of his career, but it would be fair to say that the Objectivist poets were connected by a shared artistic ambition; Objectivist poetry was to be conceptional, in that it brought in many ideas and motives, and set purpose and meaning ahead of the works themselves. Objectivists were to see the poem as an object, as a construction, and a finished work should be secondary to this origin. Following precedents of the avant garde movement, an Objectivist should refuse the lyrical Poetic 'I', setting the poet's persona aside, and taking a theoretical focus, to deliberately astue a human connection. Reader engagement was to be challenged, as poetry would be unconcerned with narrative, focusing instead on language as a tool for this construction.
So what was the purpose, or reason behind, this ideology of the craft of poetry? The objectivist sought to show an object's true essence; that is, to showcase something as it truly is, rather than how you perceive it. The way I imagined it was that there is a universal, objective world, which everyone views from behind a veil of subjectivity. The Objectivists sought to show the reader something in the way it would be seen if that veil had been lifted, simultaneously showcasing the impossibility that it never can be. For the problem lies in the fact that this subjective veil is a construct of language. Language is the way that we see the world, and makes up our perception of it, because every word holds within it certain connotations.
Your understanding is made up from language, because it brings you into form, and gives you a form to fit things into. When you were a child, it would be fair to say that your memories started when you gained the ability to articulate your vision of things into descriptives. When this has been grasped you can truly connect to the world, as this subjective veil of language allows you to understand things, to fit them into some sort of framework and assert their qualities with signifiers.
Objectivist poets were aware of this inability to show the world without our veil, because language is ultimately a cage. You can try and strip back the language, to reduce it and make it clinical, but no matter how much you do this, you can never escape its signifiers - you will always attach connotations to the simplest of poems, and thus construct a narrative. In effect, you can reduce, but never be truly reductive.
To combat this, poets such as Zukofsky played with a technique called 'homophony', to interrupt our apprehensions, or preconceptions brought about by these connotations, by translating from how words sound and look from one language to another. A way to stop signification is to create new words, and use the textures of sound, layout and poetic construction to make a literary work not dependent on meaning from language.
One may ask why the poem, as a form, is used as a vehicle for this. Zukofsky wrote that poetry is good, because it calls attention to it's form and structure, in its artificiality. There is nothing inherently natural about a sonnet, for example. It is a work, like a sculpture, that has been carefully made, it is an object in that it is the literal craft of language, of language being used as a tool to make something beautiful within the restrictions of a set form (14 lines, with alternating ABAB rhyme scheme, usually ending in a couplet, normally with a romantic subject).
Poems invite discussion, whereas philosophy seeks to answer questions. Poetry is therefore closer to truth than truth itself, as it makes no assertions that it is true, which would only make it false. Grand Narratives such as religion, science and marxism, that seek to do this, are broken down, and subjectivism reigns instead. In this way, poetry is a microcosm of the world, for if you can understand how a poem works, you can understand how the world works. Why? because by calling attention to its own artificiality, it simultaneously does so to the world around it. This subjective veil of language causes the world to be a construction by many artists, we only get a picture of the world when, like building blocks, we arrange all of these perspectives of the world together, enabling us to see it in its entirety. This idea that we live in a world of fragments sets this manifesto in a postmodern framework.
And so, the resultant homphonic poetry, which seeks to challenge our preconceptions, is like nothing we have seen before. This is deliberate. Much like Picasso's artistic career, the technical lessons of poetry had to be learnt before they could be broken, for it is difficult to react with any merit when you are ignorant of what you are reacting against.
Members of our seminar group felt that works created from this movement did not constitute poetry, and as much as I didn't enjoy the poems themselves, I enjoyed the ideas behind them, which according to the Objectivist manifesto is the most important part of the eventual product anyway. I feel that the fragmented subjectivist elements of the manifesto correlate to my own views of poetry as a form of connection, and though the poems produced have no points of human touch, the ideas behind them do. By interrupting traditional concepts of perception, the objectivists challenged the reader to see the world in a new way, to see language in a new way, and to promote it as a tool for connection. The beauty of the world can be viewed through many eyes, and the world belongs, in this sense, to everyone. If these fragmented, personal perspectives replace an overarching, all encompassing but singular narrative, the world can only be seen in a richer, deeper entirety, and this promotes reason and value for the study of the English language, as the creator of the subjective veils which allow these contributory perceptions.
A lesson in Ekphrasis
See the tiny legs near the boat to the right of the painting? That's Icarus - The Greek fellow who was overambitious with his wings of wax. He flew too close to the sun, melting his malleable feathers and drowning in the sea. Wikipedia, the ever reliable source (Cringe) describes Ekphrasis as "the graphic, often dramatic description of a visual work of art. In ancient times it referred to a description of any thing, person, or experience. The word comes from the Greek ek and phrasis, 'out' and 'speak' respectively, verb ekphrazein, to proclaim or call an inanimate object by name." In today's context, it is the translation of the visual to the verbal, or the image to the writing, and our task in seminar was a suitably dramatic description of the above work of art, in the written style of William Carlos Williams. Despite my previous aquiescence that anyone could write like he did, I found the exercise surprisingly difficult. My own past ventures into the field of creative writing preferred a more florid, archaic style, and I found it difficult to reduce the language without being reductive of the meaning. The hot sun beats down
Ships enter port
Admiral's hats observe
Woollen sheep.
So much life.
A splash in the sea
I find my effort cringeworthy, but it has been faithfully reproduced from my scrap of ten minute workshopped paper to prove the following:
1) WCW's style is not to be mocked(!) because
2) It's harder than it looks.
My creative slant was similar to WCW's own poem (Titled: 'Landscape, With the Fall of Icarus'), and that of the original painting Pieter Bruegel - That an event so subjectively monumental is so insignificant to others. Someone can be literally drowning, and yet not attract any attention.
It was interesting that when I was searching for the above image, google provided a few 'cropped' versions of Bruegel's paintings, where the middle section, focussing on the people in the foreground, made the entirety of the image. The ship to the right, under which lies Icarus' flailing leg, and the integral, though not necessarily most visually central, theme is altogether removed (Making the painting, just 'landscape', surely?)
I played with punctutation, hoping to hint at an ambiguity with a lack of a culminating full stop, in a similar way to that of WCW. Though I didn't do this with a particular meaning in mind, I thought that if it was left open, a reader would speculate a purpose or reason, creating a welcomed personal engagement, much like the lack of capitalisation at the start of The Red Wheelbarrow. The lines
'So much life.
A splash in the sea'
are set in juxtaposition, to show that the focus in the image is that of vitality, as opposed to the dying Icarus, who represents mortality. The first line introduces the 'hot sun', bringing the poem full circle, with the resultant 'splash in the sea', showing that even though both Cause and Effect are present, they are not the main visual focus. For, with this group of poets, the image is the most important element of the poem.
The language is simple, to mirror Williams' dislike for Pound and Eliot's academic elitism and allusions to foreign languages. My choice of the word 'woollen' for the description of sheep is because it is almost ononmatopoeic, in both its simplicity and nostalgic pastoral connotations.
The language is simple, to mirror Williams' dislike for Pound and Eliot's academic elitism and allusions to foreign languages. My choice of the word 'woollen' for the description of sheep is because it is almost ononmatopoeic, in both its simplicity and nostalgic pastoral connotations.
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Modernism and Phenomenolgy
Phenomenology refers to the way that we view the world through our perceptions of it; it is an empirical connection, a sensory observation and analysis of what physically exists. The philosopher Immanuel Kant creates a distinction between two principle ideas:
The Phenomena : The world of things, the material and the substantial.
The Noumena : The world of thoughts, of concepts and ideas, and how we view the physical world through our own mental construction.
At first I found this distinction quite difficult, "The World" is all encompassing and I found it hard to divide it into two camps of 'thoughts' and 'things'. I could not understand how one could view the world as Isherwood's protagonist in Goodbye to Berlin, as "a camera, with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking", surely it is impossible to simply view the world without an emotional, and therefore mental connection. Antoine De Saint Exupery wrote, in The Little Prince, "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye", an opinion that I have always championed.
John Gould Fletcher disliked imagist poetry because of its lack of substance and human touch. I agree, and wonder whether this best describes my own dislike for the poetry of this week's session.
Our focus was the works of William Carlos Williams, Robert Creeley and August Kleinzahler, poets who use simple language and informal structures to document the world they see, and their responses to it, without dressing things up into a beautiful grand narrative.
Though this poetic manifesto is admirable, I see no beauty in the works such as WCW's 'The Red Wheelbarrow', cited as his 'masterpiece'
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
William Carlos Williams was a Doctor by profession, and so his poetic products were often the result of the scribbling of mere minutes. He began publishing poetry in 1909, yet didn't attain renown until after 1946, with his larger publication 'Patterdale', an effort enabled by his retirement. Labelled 'anti poetic', he does the opposite of what poetry normally aims for, with a focus on direct form with no concession to poetic music.
The works of the Imagists favoured clear, simple language, much like Wordsworth's manifesto to use 'the common tongue of the common man'. The majority of the imagist poets simultaneously came under the heading of 'modernist' poets, reevaluating their place in a changing world, unlike their Georgian contemporaries who happily stuck to archaic tradition. D.H Lawrence was an interesting figure, in that he contributed to Lowell's Some Imagist Poems anthology, placing him as both a Georgian and Imagist poet. The influence of imagism will go on to be seen in the works of the Objectivists, who worked in a mainly free verse form, and the Beat Poets, who defined performance poetry.
This brings us back to an earlier post, in which I questioned what makes a piece of work 'poetry'? One could make the statement that "Anyone could do that", the answer would be "But they don't", which leads us to the question, why don't people do it, and what difference does it make to culture that it exists?
I suppose the answer is that in order for cultural progress, one must sometimes be truly revolutionary, casting aside all that is 'old', in favour of what is 'new'. The old is still present, as its absence is what defines it as new. WCW hated the use of traditional structures for the sake of being traditional, and questioned how, for example a Sonnet, could fit into his everyday life. By breaking away from traditional English poetic forms and structures, he is able to write with the idiom of America, a poetic Declaration of Independence. This idea coexists with the previously mentioned manifesto of presenting things in their most pure form, without dressing them up. The result is that the subject shines in its actuality, the subject is what it is, and that is enough. An image of a red wheelbarrow, for example, is for WCW beautiful enough, without the need for literary decoration, and though this specific picture is arguably boring, the fact that the mundane can be inspirational truly is admirable.
Though I have not been favourably swayed by the poems this week, it has given me a fresh perspective on the portrayal of beauty, it has made me realise that objects are objectives, and poems are a subjective expression of perspective. Their form and use of language are tools that can be used to provide insight into this perspective, and the words chosen for this description or portrayal are not merely content, but evidence of construction.
The Phenomena : The world of things, the material and the substantial.
The Noumena : The world of thoughts, of concepts and ideas, and how we view the physical world through our own mental construction.
At first I found this distinction quite difficult, "The World" is all encompassing and I found it hard to divide it into two camps of 'thoughts' and 'things'. I could not understand how one could view the world as Isherwood's protagonist in Goodbye to Berlin, as "a camera, with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking", surely it is impossible to simply view the world without an emotional, and therefore mental connection. Antoine De Saint Exupery wrote, in The Little Prince, "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye", an opinion that I have always championed.
John Gould Fletcher disliked imagist poetry because of its lack of substance and human touch. I agree, and wonder whether this best describes my own dislike for the poetry of this week's session.
Our focus was the works of William Carlos Williams, Robert Creeley and August Kleinzahler, poets who use simple language and informal structures to document the world they see, and their responses to it, without dressing things up into a beautiful grand narrative.
Though this poetic manifesto is admirable, I see no beauty in the works such as WCW's 'The Red Wheelbarrow', cited as his 'masterpiece'
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
William Carlos Williams was a Doctor by profession, and so his poetic products were often the result of the scribbling of mere minutes. He began publishing poetry in 1909, yet didn't attain renown until after 1946, with his larger publication 'Patterdale', an effort enabled by his retirement. Labelled 'anti poetic', he does the opposite of what poetry normally aims for, with a focus on direct form with no concession to poetic music.
The works of the Imagists favoured clear, simple language, much like Wordsworth's manifesto to use 'the common tongue of the common man'. The majority of the imagist poets simultaneously came under the heading of 'modernist' poets, reevaluating their place in a changing world, unlike their Georgian contemporaries who happily stuck to archaic tradition. D.H Lawrence was an interesting figure, in that he contributed to Lowell's Some Imagist Poems anthology, placing him as both a Georgian and Imagist poet. The influence of imagism will go on to be seen in the works of the Objectivists, who worked in a mainly free verse form, and the Beat Poets, who defined performance poetry.
This brings us back to an earlier post, in which I questioned what makes a piece of work 'poetry'? One could make the statement that "Anyone could do that", the answer would be "But they don't", which leads us to the question, why don't people do it, and what difference does it make to culture that it exists?
I suppose the answer is that in order for cultural progress, one must sometimes be truly revolutionary, casting aside all that is 'old', in favour of what is 'new'. The old is still present, as its absence is what defines it as new. WCW hated the use of traditional structures for the sake of being traditional, and questioned how, for example a Sonnet, could fit into his everyday life. By breaking away from traditional English poetic forms and structures, he is able to write with the idiom of America, a poetic Declaration of Independence. This idea coexists with the previously mentioned manifesto of presenting things in their most pure form, without dressing them up. The result is that the subject shines in its actuality, the subject is what it is, and that is enough. An image of a red wheelbarrow, for example, is for WCW beautiful enough, without the need for literary decoration, and though this specific picture is arguably boring, the fact that the mundane can be inspirational truly is admirable.
Though I have not been favourably swayed by the poems this week, it has given me a fresh perspective on the portrayal of beauty, it has made me realise that objects are objectives, and poems are a subjective expression of perspective. Their form and use of language are tools that can be used to provide insight into this perspective, and the words chosen for this description or portrayal are not merely content, but evidence of construction.
Thursday 13 January 2011
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
"O Captain! My Captain!""In 1855, Whitman took out a copyright on the first edition of Leaves of Grass, which consisted of twelve untitled poems and a preface. He published the volume himself, and sent a copy to Emerson in July of 1855. Whitman released a second edition of the book in 1856, containing thirty-three poems, a letter from Emerson praising the first edition, and a long open letter by Whitman in response. During his subsequent career, Whitman continued to refine the volume, publishing several more editions of the book.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Whitman vowed to live a "purged" and "cleansed" life. He wrote freelance journalism and visited the wounded at New York-area hospitals. He then traveled to Washington, D.C. in December 1862 to care for his brother who had been wounded in the war.
Overcome by the suffering of the many wounded in Washington, Whitman decided to stay and work in the hospitals and stayed in the city for eleven years. He took a job as a clerk for the Department of the Interior, which ended when the Secretary of the Interior, James Harlan, discovered that Whitman was the author of Leaves of Grass, which Harlan found offensive. Harlan fired the poet."
-From www.poets.org/whitman
Today I read sections 1-3 of Whitman's poem, 'Leaves of Grass'[Song of Myself]. Whitman embodies the American Poetic aesthetic of writing in a bold, fresh, and new way. If we compare his writing to that of Tennyson, his English contemporary, we can truly appreciate the modernity of his writing. Rather than focusing on ideas and forms of the past, Whitman is writing as he lives, an ideal in poetry personified in American writing. The premise of 'Songs of Myself' is a celebration of humanity, using himself as an example. The poem starts with 'I' and ends with 'You', embodying the spirit of connection I was talking about in my 'definition of poetry' post. In Whitman's work, the poet is a mouthpiece.
"Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of
all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions
of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through
the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self."
(Section 2)
Though I like that he sees a definitive universal secret meaning to poetry, I struggle with his self-absorbed narrative voice. It is with no irony that he says
"I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself."
The point is clearly that he is great, and everyone is great, yet I find this tone of omniscience to be rather irritating.
Whitman embodies the poet as a prophet idyll, and the poem is loose with little formalised structure. As a result, it reads like an epiphony, and the narrator's voice is obviously a product of organic construction, rather than an architectural product. Though it was published in 1855, Whitman uses a style similar to the 'Stream of Conscious' narrative, which would not become popular until the early 1900s, illustrating his goal of creating the modern.
What constitutes poetry?
Today's introductory lecture and seminar focused on the way that we define poetry as a medium, and the art behind its construction. We were asked to think about what 'poetry' was to us as individuals, and how we would describe it objectively. My attempt:
Poetry is...
A successful mastery of language used to convey an emotion or idea that we, as human beings, can connect to and appreciate.
My definition sits in between the two main schools of American thought regarding poetry, One of which championing the poet as a prophet, where content is integral, and its wisdom is the product of an epiphany or genius of the creator; The other focusing more on form, where content is secondary to structure, and the work is revered as a construction, and valued as a form of literary architecture. Though I feel structure is integral to a poem, and not only adds emphasis to the content, and showcases the poet's mastery of language even in constraint, I feel that content should be held with equal importance.
"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer."
-E.M Forster
As a human being, I believe it is empathy that seperates us from animals, The fact that we can feel, understand, and sympathise even in situations that we have never experienced, is definitive in our species, and the fact that this empathy can override instinct demonstrates both our free will, and capacity for emotional logic. I feel that for poetry to be truly great, it needs to carry a message, however vague that message may be, that the reader can connect to. From the poet's perspective, it gives the work a purpose, and references its original inspiration or cause. From the reader's perspective, it allows entry into a collective union of humanity, forming an emotional connection to the products of a stranger, that can be shared by others.
I think it is important to define ourselves as readers in the poetry process, for if it is this connection which is important, to some extent it removes the genius from the creator. Last term, I studied Roland Barthes, and his theories in The Death of the Author.
Barthes argues that our Postmodern society puts too much emphasis on the ‘Author’ behind the work. He argues that a good piece of literature is one entirely devoid of marks left by the ‘creator’. Why? Because by linking a creator with His product, Barthes believes that one will automatically search for His voice. His biography will provide the definitive answer on the correct “meaning” or “explanation” of his work, and so ultimately, “To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text." Barthes goes on to say that no ‘product’ is an original work, but rather a “tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of cultures”. By claiming that the Author’s products were simply a culmination of the fruits of the variations in society, he takes away the God-like status of the Author, and shifts the importance to the reader. "A text's unity lies not in its origins, but in its destination," and so it is instead the reader who takes the active role in piecing together these fractions and assuming meaning, it is The reader who is the space on which all the quotations that make up a writing are inscribed without any of them being lost“.
If this is the case, poetry's worth could be judged by two merits; As a piece of architecture, the genius lies with the poet, but for the connective content, the reader supplies its value.
Quotes are from:
Barthes, Roland. 'The Death of the Author' from Image, Music, Text. (London: Hill and Wang,1978.
Forster, E.M. Howards End (London: Penguin Books, 1972)
Poetry is...
A successful mastery of language used to convey an emotion or idea that we, as human beings, can connect to and appreciate.
My definition sits in between the two main schools of American thought regarding poetry, One of which championing the poet as a prophet, where content is integral, and its wisdom is the product of an epiphany or genius of the creator; The other focusing more on form, where content is secondary to structure, and the work is revered as a construction, and valued as a form of literary architecture. Though I feel structure is integral to a poem, and not only adds emphasis to the content, and showcases the poet's mastery of language even in constraint, I feel that content should be held with equal importance.
"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer."
-E.M Forster
As a human being, I believe it is empathy that seperates us from animals, The fact that we can feel, understand, and sympathise even in situations that we have never experienced, is definitive in our species, and the fact that this empathy can override instinct demonstrates both our free will, and capacity for emotional logic. I feel that for poetry to be truly great, it needs to carry a message, however vague that message may be, that the reader can connect to. From the poet's perspective, it gives the work a purpose, and references its original inspiration or cause. From the reader's perspective, it allows entry into a collective union of humanity, forming an emotional connection to the products of a stranger, that can be shared by others.
I think it is important to define ourselves as readers in the poetry process, for if it is this connection which is important, to some extent it removes the genius from the creator. Last term, I studied Roland Barthes, and his theories in The Death of the Author.
Barthes argues that our Postmodern society puts too much emphasis on the ‘Author’ behind the work. He argues that a good piece of literature is one entirely devoid of marks left by the ‘creator’. Why? Because by linking a creator with His product, Barthes believes that one will automatically search for His voice. His biography will provide the definitive answer on the correct “meaning” or “explanation” of his work, and so ultimately, “To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text." Barthes goes on to say that no ‘product’ is an original work, but rather a “tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of cultures”. By claiming that the Author’s products were simply a culmination of the fruits of the variations in society, he takes away the God-like status of the Author, and shifts the importance to the reader. "A text's unity lies not in its origins, but in its destination," and so it is instead the reader who takes the active role in piecing together these fractions and assuming meaning, it is The reader who is the space on which all the quotations that make up a writing are inscribed without any of them being lost“.
If this is the case, poetry's worth could be judged by two merits; As a piece of architecture, the genius lies with the poet, but for the connective content, the reader supplies its value.
Quotes are from:
Barthes, Roland. 'The Death of the Author' from Image, Music, Text. (London: Hill and Wang,1978.
Forster, E.M. Howards End (London: Penguin Books, 1972)
Assessment
This Blog will act as part B of the written assessments,
A research file (50%) further broken down into:
1. An annotated bibliography of relevant secondary sources (10 minimum), either on individual poets or poetic schools (15%)
2. Brief reflective commentaries on three groups of poets, minimum 300 words each (20%)
3. Two creative writing exercises along with brief commentaries (300 words minimum for each commentary) situating this work in relation to forms of poetics encountered on the unit (15%).
-Dr Nikolai Duffy 2011
A research file (50%) further broken down into:
1. An annotated bibliography of relevant secondary sources (10 minimum), either on individual poets or poetic schools (15%)
2. Brief reflective commentaries on three groups of poets, minimum 300 words each (20%)
3. Two creative writing exercises along with brief commentaries (300 words minimum for each commentary) situating this work in relation to forms of poetics encountered on the unit (15%).
-Dr Nikolai Duffy 2011
The Course Outline
This unit will introduce you to the range and diversity of twentieth century American poetry and poetics. Considering both ‘mainstream’ and ‘experimental’ works from modernism to the Beats, confessional poetry to cyber poetry, we will discuss the ways that poets explore ideas around such issues as poetic tradition, language, knowledge and identity. We will analyse individual poems in relation to theoretical essays on poetics, considering what typifies a specifically American poetic tradition, as well as reflecting on the cultural significance of poetry during the twentieth century. Some of the material we will be discussing can be challenging. Try not to be put off by this but think about why a poem might make a feature of being ‘difficult’. As much as trying to work out what a poem might be saying, always try to think about what it is a poem is doing, as well as how it is doing it. We’ll be exploring why and how a poem works as much as what it appears to be saying. Finally, remember that it’s ok to get lost; it’s difficult to discover things if we’re not prepared to have our assumptions challenged, if we’re not prepared to lose ourselves.
-Dr Nikolai Duffy. 2011
-Dr Nikolai Duffy. 2011
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