DOCSLIB.ORG

Xerox University Microfilms

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Xerox University Microfilms INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The Wlowing explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or "target" for pages ^parently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. 5. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Aitor, Michigan 46106 74-21,971 FIXMER, Clyde H., 1934- THE ELEMENT OF MYTH IN JAMES DICKEY'S POETRY, The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1974 Language and Literature, modem University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOFiA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE ELEMENT OF MYTH IN JAMES DICKEY’S POETRY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY CLYDE FIXMER Norman, Ok1ahoma 1974 THE ELEMENT OF MYTH IN JAMES DICKEY’S POETRY APPROVED BY DISSERTATION COMMITTEE TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter I. Of Myths and Visions . ...................... 1 II. The Reclamation of King J a m e s ................ 33 III. Encounters in the Ancient W o r l d ............. 57 IV. Into the Dickey Cosmos ...................... 83 V. Great Shimmering Walls of Words ............. 126 Chapter I Of Myths and Visions My interest in James Dickey's uses of mythology was prompted by the titles of some of his poems. A look at the table of contents of his Poems: 1957-1967 revealed to me that he had perhaps written a dozen or so poems concerning Biblical and classical mythology. Such titles as "Sleeping Out at Easter," "The Vegetable King," "Walking on Water," "The Heaven of Animals," "The Magus," and "Approaching Prayer" appeared to indicate that the poet had more than a passing interest in the mythological. It was not, however, until I had read his complete published poetry that I realized the extent of his debt to mythological sources. I was also interested in a poet who writes a love poem with lines such as these in it: "Like the dead, I have newly arisen," "No thing that shall die as I step/ May fall, or not sing of rebirth," "Elsewhere I have dreamed of my birth,/ And come from my death as I dreamed," "Once more I come home from my ghost," and "The dead have their chance in my body." These lines are all from Dickey's poem "Into the Stone," which is the title poem of his first collection. The poem describes the thoughts of a man as he goes to meet his lover. Yet the context in which these lines appear is of little help to the reader. Here is the first stanza: On the way to a woman, I give Myself all the way into moonlight. Now down from all sides it is beating, The moon turns around in the fix Of its light; its other side totally shines. Like the dead, I have newly arisen. Amazed by the light I can throw. Stand waiting, ray love, where you are. The poem appears to be describing a man who has been spiri­ tually "resurrected" by the power of love. In this way of viewing the poem, then, the line "Once more I come home from my ghost" is certainly explainable, as well as the lines "Elsewhere I have dreamed of my birth,/ And come from my death as I dreamed." Even these lines— "No thing that shall die as I step/ May fall, or not sing of rebirth"— may be explained as descriptive of the apparent suspension of time which lovers often speak of. Yet what of the line "The dead have their chance in my body"? Here is this line's context: I take my deep heart from the air. The road like a woman is singing. It sings with what makes my heart beat In the air, and the moon turns around. The dead have their chance in my body. The stars are drawn into their myths. I bear nothing but moonlight upon me. I am known ; I know my love. The reason that the dead can have their chance in the poet's body is not apparent from the context of this poem but is readily apparent, as we shall see, when viewed in relation to the poet's overall vision. While I was in the process of reading Dickey's poetry, 3 I read as well his then recent book SeIf-Interviews in which the poet states that he was working both "semi-consciously and quite consciously toward mythologizing my own factual experience.'’^ In the same book Dickey also states that "the ancient Biblical and Greek myths are always reclaimable if O you can bring something new to them.He cites Yeats’s poem "Leda and the Swan" as an example of this process of reclama­ tion and then states that the "ancient myths are always access­ ible if you have the poetic power to bring that kind of re- 3 newal to them." Elsewhere in Self-Interviews Dickey says that his poem "The Vegetable King" is his answer to Eliot's use of the Osiris myth"^ and his "Walking on Water" portrays a sort of "junior Christ. These admitted attempts to mythologize his own experi­ ences are, as Wallace Stevens might have said, "merely in­ stances." The facts are that Dickey has attempted this myth­ ologizing on a rather large scale. My study, then, has been an attempt to discover just how extensive Dickey’s uses of mythology have been, whether or not he has indeed mytholo­ gized his own factual experiences, whether or not he has brought anything "new" to these myths, and to what extent his poetic vision has been shaped by his uses of mythology. With reference to the extent of the poet’s uses of myth­ ology, I have found that of the one hundred and eleven poems in Dickey’s collected poems, at least seventy-five are mytho­ logical in one sense or another.® In some of these poems, for example, the narrators become mythological figures. In 4 other poems, the narrators remain human but are compared to mythological figures. The poems themselves, especially the earlier ones, are the poet's versions of a number of Bibli­ cal and classical myths, or parts of these myths, some of which are well-known and some not so well-known. In addition, Dickey has drawn upon several other mythological sources for figures and myths. Cne of these sources is what may be called folklore, and another is legend.? Involved in any study of this kind, of course, is a certain amount of "source- hunting.” Some of Dickey's sources are quite obvious; others are not so obvious. Part of my study has been a kind of lit­ erary sleuthing, and I believe that I have found a number of Dickey’s sources in the writings of several anthropologists whose works the poet read with much interest during his last two years of college.& With reference to Dickey's attempt to mythologize his own factual experiences, we have his statement that in "The Vegetable King" he tried to mythologize his own family.® There are a number of other poems as well which he talks about in Self-Interviews as having been based upon his own family experiences. One is "The String," another, "In the Tree House at Night." In addition to poems about his family, Dickey has written several poems based upon his experiences in World War II and the Korean War, and he talks about these 10 poems in Self-Interviews. However, we also have Dickey's statement that personal experience, for him, includes any­ thing he has ever experienced in any mannerFor example, 5 Dickey believes that even those experiences which he has imagined are his own factual experiences. Still, the situa­ tion is not hopeless, for the poet has written enough about himself that it is possible to point out at least some of the factual experiences in his poems and to infer them in others.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • April 2005 Updrafts
    Chaparral from the California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc. serving Californiaupdr poets for over 60 yearsaftsVolume 66, No. 3 • April, 2005 President Ted Kooser is Pulitzer Prize Winner James Shuman, PSJ 2005 has been a busy year for Poet Laureate Ted Kooser. On April 7, the Pulitzer commit- First Vice President tee announced that his Delights & Shadows had won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. And, Jeremy Shuman, PSJ later in the week, he accepted appointment to serve a second term as Poet Laureate. Second Vice President While many previous Poets Laureate have also Katharine Wilson, RF Winners of the Pulitzer Prize receive a $10,000 award. Third Vice President been winners of the Pulitzer, not since 1947 has the Pegasus Buchanan, Tw prize been won by the sitting laureate. In that year, A professor of English at the University of Ne- braska-Lincoln, Kooser’s award-winning book, De- Fourth Vice President Robert Lowell won— and at the time the position Eric Donald, Or was known as the Consultant in Poetry to the Li- lights & Shadows, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2004. Treasurer brary of Congress. It was not until 1986 that the po- Ursula Gibson, Tw sition became known as the Poet Laureate Consult- “I’m thrilled by this,” Kooser said shortly after Recording Secretary ant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. the announcement. “ It’s something every poet dreams Lee Collins, Tw The 89th annual prizes in Journalism, Letters, of. There are so many gifted poets in this country, Corresponding Secretary Drama and Music were announced by Columbia Uni- and so many marvelous collections published each Dorothy Marshall, Tw versity.
    [Show full text]
  • Guide to the Papers of the Summer Seminar of the Arts
    Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers Guide to the Papers of The Summer Seminar of the Arts Auburn University at Montgomery Library Archives and Special Collections © AUM Library TABLE OF CONTENTS Content Page # Collection Summary 2 Administrative Information 2 Restrictions 2 Biographical Information 3-4 Scope and Content Note 5 Arrangement 5-6 Inventory 6-24 1 Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers Collection Summary Creator: Jack Mooney Title: Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers Dates: ca. 1969-1983 Quantity: 9 boxes; 6.0 cu. ft. Identification: 2005/02 Contact Information: AUM Library Archives & Special Collections P.O. Box 244023 Montgomery, AL 36124-4023 Ph: (334) 244-3213 Email: archives@mail.aum.edu Administrative Information Preferred Citation: Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers, Auburn University Montgomery Library, Archives & Special Collections. Acquisition Information: Jack Mooney donated the collection to the AUM Library in May 2005. Processing By: Samantha McNeilly, Archives/Special Collections Assistant (2005). Copyright Information: Copyright not assigned to the AUM Library. Restrictions Restrictions on access: There are no restrictions on access to these papers. Restrictions on usage: Researchers are responsible for addressing copyright issues on materials not in the public domain. 2 Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers Biographical/Historical Information The Summer Seminar of the Arts was an annual arts and literary festival held in Montgomery from 1969 until 1983. The Seminar was part of the Montgomery Arts Guild, an organization which was active in promoting and sponsoring cultural events. Held during July, the Seminar hosted readings by notable poets, offered creative writing workshops, held creative writing contests, and featured musical performances.
    [Show full text]
  • Howard Nemerov's War Poetry
    Diederik Oostdijk Debunking ‘The Good War’ Myth: Howard Nemerov’s War Poetry This essay offers the most comprehensive analysis to date of Howard Nemerov’s war poetry. Nemerov (1920–1991) was a fighter pilot of the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Air Force during World War II and became one the most prolific American poets of that war. Whereas his early poems about World War II tend to be impersonal and dense, his later war poems, especially those in War Stories (1987) are more autobiographical and lyri- cal. Throughout his career Nemerov resisted the idea that World War II had been a ‘Good War’ and all of his poems are testimony to his traumatic experiences as a fighter pilot. “Poetry is a way of getting something right in language” Howard Nemerov, “On the Measure of Poetry” Of all the American poets who were involved in and emerged after World War II, Howard Nemerov (1920–1991) tried to debunk ‘The Good War’ myth most consistently and assertively.1 Nemerov published over twenty-five volumes of poetry, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, was poetry con- sultant at the Library of Congress, and was awarded the National Medal of the Arts in 1987, the highest distinction the American government can bestow on its artists. Despite all the prizes and awards given to him during his lifetime, Nemerov was quickly forgotten by literary historians after his death, partly because of his reputation as an opaque and intellectual poet and partly because his life was less controversial than that of some of his contemporaries, for instance James Dickey and Robert Lowell.
    [Show full text]
  • An American Myth : James Dickey's "The Zodiac" Arthur Gordon Van Ness
    University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Master's Theses Student Research 1983 An American myth : James Dickey's "The Zodiac" Arthur Gordon Van Ness Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/masters-theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Van Ness, Arthur Gordon, "An American myth : James Dickey's "The Zodiac"" (1983). Master's Theses. 1225. http://scholarship.richmond.edu/masters-theses/1225 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact scholarshiprepository@richmond.edu. ill\ .A~"I,.jE I Ci1?~ ;.iYTii: J ;;,.ISS DICKc;Y '~; ••rr'H:::; ZUj)li\C" ~;U.!Ml'l''I.3ll rro 'l'HL; jj,~f r't~, T.'i!Slfi OF ,~NGLIS.ti OF' 'l'Ht; GhA.UU;,'.L.:.; SC!iOOL OF Tii;c; mnv.:;.i1Sl'i'Y ()}' hICh/,JIHl rn F-'A.h 'I' L\L FULr ILLi!i::::Ii'l' 01< rL:-ii:; l-...XJilt,~;;i.~li'IS BY l·.HnO'iT~~D: }. (for tnesi~ committo~) /~.,;:{ /, H/3 / ]J~ 7 ., LfliRARY UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND VIRGINIA TABLE OF CONTEl~'lS lN'IF.ODUCTlON PAGE A. Wnitman, Dickey, and t.ne American 1 Mytaic 'I·radition B. The American Myth 3 c. Notes of Wonder 8 D. The Sacred ~mptiness of Space 10 E. Tne Divinij;y of :Man 14 1. Tile Poet as Intensified. Man 14 2. "Dawn-rights" 15 3. The Poet Crucified 16 F.
    [Show full text]
  • DICKEY, JAMES. James Dickey Papers, Circa 1924-1997
    DICKEY, JAMES. James Dickey papers, circa 1924-1997 Emory University Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library Atlanta, GA 30322 404-727-6887 rose.library@emory.edu Collection Stored Off-Site All or portions of this collection are housed off-site. Materials can still be requested but researchers should expect a delay of up to two business days for retrieval. Descriptive Summary Creator: Dickey, James. Title: James Dickey papers, circa 1924-1997 Call Number: Manuscript Collection No. 745 Extent: 204 linear feet (421) boxes), 11 oversized papers boxes and 18 oversized papers folders (OP), 2 extra-oversized papers (XOP), 21 bound volumes (BV), 1 oversized bound volume (OBV), and AV Masters: 1.75 linear feet (2 boxes and LP1) Abstract: Personal and literary papers of American poet and novelist James Dickey, including correspondence, manuscripts, personal notebooks, printed material, photographs, and sound recordings. Language: Materials entirely in English. Administrative Information Restrictions on access Special restrictions apply: Collection stored off-site. Researchers must contact the Rose Library in advance to access this collection. Due to the fragile nature of the World War II correspondence in Subseries 1.4, researchers are required to use the photocopies. Use copies have not been made for all of the audiovisual series at this time. Researchers must contact the Rose Library in advance for access to these materials. Terms Governing Use and Reproduction All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction. Emory Libraries provides copies of its finding aids for use only in research and private study. Copies supplied may not be copied for others or otherwise distributed without prior consent of the holding repository.
    [Show full text]
  • Thoughts on Spirituality and the Vocation of Creative Writing J
    26 “To the imagination, the sacred is self-evident”: Thoughts on Spirituality and the Vocation of Creative Writing J. Matthew Boyleston In 1630, a man of many gifts with a bright future at court donned the cloth and summarily disappeared into the English landscape. He lived quietly as a country parson with a desire to write poetry. Three centuries later another gifted man, recently ordained, walked into the wilds of north Wales to serve as a priest to the barren terrain and a hostile population – and, in doing so, to write out his great argument with the deus absconditus, the absent god. The first was George Herbert; the second, R.S. Thomas. Although so different, Herbert the great poet of the affirmation of God, Thomas the great poet of God’s negation, both poets, as so many before and after them, felt the Spirit’s dual call to the word – in priesthood as in poetry. My own starting thesis is built upon the profound pronouncement in the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2:10). I believe that poetry and fiction are ways that the Spirit searches all things, on earth and in heaven, regardless of whether the author is aware of the Spirit or not. I wish to explore this dual vocation: the great dance between the Spirit and the creative writer. Although few of the writers discussed in this essay actually took holy orders, the interplay between the worlds of religion and literature have produced much of what we consider the best and most moving poetry and fiction: The Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, The Brothers Karamazov, the poetry of Chaucer, Donne, and Eliot, and the stories of Flannery O’Connor and G.K.
    [Show full text]
  • James Dickey - Poems
    Classic Poetry Series James Dickey - poems - Publication Date: 2012 Publisher: Poemhunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive James Dickey(2 February 1923 – 19 January 1997) James Lafayette Dickey was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1966. <b>Biography</b> </b>Early Years</b> James Dickey was born to lawyer Eugene Dickey and Maibelle Swift in Atlanta, Georgia where he attended North Fulton High School in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood. In 1942 he enrolled at Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina and played on the football team as a tailback. After one semester, he left school to enlist in the Army Air Corps. Dickey served with the U.S. Army Air Forces as a radar operator in a night fighter squadron during the Second World War, and in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. Between the wars he attended Vanderbilt University, graduating with degrees in English and philosophy, as well as minoring in astronomy. He also taught at the University of Florida. <b>Career</b> From 1950 to 1954, Dickey taught at Rice University (then Rice Institute) in Houston. While teaching freshman composition at Rice, Dickey returned for a two-year air force stint in Korea, and went back to teaching. (Norton Anthology, The Literature of the American South, 809) He then worked for several years in advertising, most notably writing copy and helping direct creative work on the Coca-Cola and Lay's Potato Chips campaign. He once said he embarked on his advertising career in order to "make some bucks." Dickey also said "I was selling my soul to the devil all day...and trying to buy it back at night".
    [Show full text]
  • THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY of AMERICA American Poetry at Mid
    THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA American Poetry at Mid-Century: Warren, Jarrell, and Lowell A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of English School of Arts and Sciences Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy By Joan Romano Shifflett Washington, D.C. 2013 American Poetry at Mid-Century: Warren, Jarrell, and Lowell Joan Romano Shifflett, Ph.D. Director: Ernest Suarez, Ph.D. This dissertation explores the artistic and personal connections between three writers who helped change American poetry: Robert Penn Warren, Randall Jarrell, and Robert Lowell. All three poets maintained a close working relationship throughout their careers, particularly as they experimented with looser poetic forms and more personal poetry in the fifties and after. Various studies have explored their careers within sundry contexts, but no sustained examination of their relationships with one another exists. In focusing on literary history and aesthetics, this study develops an historical narrative that includes close-readings of primary texts within a variety of contexts. Established views of formalism, high modernism, and the New Criticism are interwoven into the study as tools for examining poetic structure within selected poems. Contexts concerning current criticism on these authors are also interlaced throughout the study and discussed in relation to particular historical and aesthetic issues. Having closely scrutinized the personal exchanges and creative output of all three poets, this study illuminates the significance of these writers’ relationships to American poetry at mid- century and beyond. Though the more experimental schools of poetry would not reach their height until the 1950s, by the 1940s Warren, Jarrell, and Lowell were already searching for a new aesthetic.
    [Show full text]
  • "Presentational Immediacy" in the Poetry of James Dickey
    Loma Linda University TheScholarsRepository@LLU: Digital Archive of Research, Scholarship & Creative Works Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects 6-1974 "Presentational Immediacy" in the Poetry of James Dickey Lethiel C. Parson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, and the Poetry Commons Recommended Citation Parson, Lethiel C., ""Presentational Immediacy" in the Poetry of James Dickey" (1974). Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects. 1063. https://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/1063 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by TheScholarsRepository@LLU: Digital Archive of Research, Scholarship & Creative Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects by an authorized administrator of TheScholarsRepository@LLU: Digital Archive of Research, Scholarship & Creative Works. For more information, please contact scholarsrepository@llu.edu. .\!ERNIER RADCLIFFE MEMORIAL LIBRARY LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY LOMA LINDA, CALIFORNIA LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY Graduate School "PRESENTATIONAL IMMEDIACY" IN THE POETRY OF JAMES DICKEY by Lethiel C. Parson A Thesis in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Field of English June, 1974 192256 Each person whose signature appears below certifies that this thesis in his opinion is adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree Master of Arts. \\ ~ ) ' iJC)J},j , Chairman Delmer I. Davis, Professor of English Robert P .. Dunn, AssistatProfessor of English ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my appreciation to the four professors who served on my thesis committee for without their special help, encouragement and interest this project would have remained incomplete.
    [Show full text]
  • James Dickey: the Bee
    James Dickey: The Bee I spent a long time thinking about what to send out after a long hiatus. It having been spring—I’m echoing a poem I don’t like, although it is immensely quotable, ee cummings’ “In Just-/spring when the world is mud-/luscious” – I decided to send two diametrically opposite spring poems, one by Emily Dickinson and one by William Wordsworth. As I wrote then, I was on a sabbatical leave, working on revising letters I had earlier sent out by email. I enjoyed the work. I revisited what I had written, revised, revised some more, and added introductions to each essay. I thought I was done, but in adding the introduction to a chapter on a poem by Elizabeth Bishop I reread the Bishop essay, and thought ‘Ouch. There are more typographical errors than I knew, and there are still stylistic infelicities.’ So I revised once more. Through this period of revision and elucidation, I often considered which poem I should send out next. At first it was a poem by Friedrich Hölderlin called “Hyperion’s Song of Destiny,” but the more I read Hölderlin the more I realized that the poem was not typical of his voice and style1. I read a lot of Hölderlin, as I had done in the first year I was in Washington. He is for me a very strange poet: None of his poems come into the tight focus I like to bring to poems, and yet, the more I read Hölderlin (and fail to understand the individual poems) the more I think I know what he is about.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry and What Is Real Richard Tillinghast
    Poetry and What Is Real Richard Tillinghast Poetry and What Is Real THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS Ann Arbor This book is dedicated to Alan Williamson, remembering conversations on poetry that have continued for over forty years, in Cambridge, Berkeley and elsewhere Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2004 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America ϱ Printed on acid-free paper 2007 2006 2005 2004 4321 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tillinghast, Richard. Poetry and what is real / Richard Tillinghast. p. cm. — (Poets on poetry) ISBN 0-472-09872-1 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-472-06872-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. American poetry—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Poetry—Authorship. 3. Poetry. I. Title. II. Series. PS323.5.T55 2004 811Ј.509—dc22 2004004959 Preface Things that can never be sustainable and thus “real” in everyday life, fantasies of one kind or another, wishes that can never come true, are often the meat and drink of the poetry written by the authors I write about in this book: Allen Ginsberg, James Dickey, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and others. Robert Frost writes in “Spring Pools”: The trees that have it in their pent-up buds To darken nature and be summer woods— Let them think twice before they use their powers To blot out and drink up and sweep away These Bowery waters and these watery Bowers From snow that melted only yesterday.
    [Show full text]
  • ENG 15520090112094210Yearwoodl
    English 285: Text and Context The Incident Room: Investigations into Literature, Tina Barr (tinabarr@rhodes.edu , office is 308B Palmer Hall, 843 3979) Office Hours Wednesdays 2 to 4 and by appt. Like detective work, literary study involves methods of analysis; we learn critical writing and critical thinking in the process of asking questions and positing conclusions with regard to the challenges of technique as well as content. In this course we will consider twentieth century and contemporary novels, short stories and poems that present us with psychological mysteries. The three genres will include work by fiction writers such as William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, William Trevor, D.H. Lawrence, Alice Munro, and Cormac McCarthy, poets Robert Lowell, Stanley Kunitz, James Dickey, Elizabeth Bishop, James Wright, Countee Cullen, Robert Hayden and Philip Levine. We will use a film---Nicholas Roeg’s “Don’t Look Now,” as an introduction to methods of analysis such as the use of symbols. Each discussion will invite students to consider the influence of literary ideas and backgrounds, as well as understanding literary terms. English 285 is designed to equip majors with the tools required for middle- and upper-division courses in English. It will focus on the necessary skills for understanding the verbal texture of literature, the development of argument and critical response, and the ability to frame discussion of texts in relation to a series of significant contexts. Such contexts might include a text’s historical and cultural circumstances, or its situation in the wider history or discipline of literary studies. The course will introduce a critical vocabulary through the demonstrated use of these terms in analysis.
    [Show full text]