Annotated Bibliography

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.