View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by epublications@Marquette Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations (2009 -) Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects From Pastorals to Paterson: Ecology in the Poetry and Poetics of William Carlos WIlliams Daniel Edmund Burke Marquette University Recommended Citation Burke, Daniel Edmund, "From Pastorals to Paterson: Ecology in the Poetry and Poetics of William Carlos WIlliams" (2014). Dissertations (2009 -). Paper 387. http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/387 FROM PASTORALS TO PATERSON: ECOLOGY IN THE POETRY AND POETICS OF WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS by Daniel E. Burke, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin August 2014 ABSTRACT FROM PASTORALS TO PATERSON: ECOLOGY IN THE POETRY AND POETICS OF WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS Daniel E. Burke, B.A., M.A. Marquette University, 2014 Modernist poet William Carlos Williams died in 1962 – a landmark year in the history of the modern environmentalist movement. He did not live to see contemporary culture come to the deeper appreciation of humanity’s place in the world which we now know as ecology. This dissertation will argue, however, that supporting his entire oeuvre of poetry are philosophical and poetic underpinnings which resonate strongly with – and usefully anticipate – our modern understanding of the interpenetrative relationship between natural and culture, human and nonhuman. I begin by tracing the roots of Williams’s “ecopoetics” back to the father of Williams’s beloved free verse: Walt Whitman. Both Whitman and Williams use nature as subject and trope in their poetry, but the latter pointedly improves upon the work of the former by shifting the voice of his poetry from an anthropocentric (human-centered) perspective to a more ecocentric one – one which breaks down the traditional American Romantic notion of nature as apart from us, instead more readily acknowledging humanity as integral part and parcel of nature’s cyclical systems. In the middle sections of the work, the focus centers exclusively upon Williams, especially in his earlier poetry and prose collection Spring and All (1921), as well as in his later five-book epic Paterson. In these, I reveal three distinct ecopoetic qualities of his poetry: 1) a continuation of the ecocentric poetic voice; 2) treatment of the “imagination” as a natural force (akin to steam or lightning) which humans harness to generate art; and, 3) an anticipation of modern ideas about the “local” in his use of his native New Jersey landscape as poetic subject. Through close readings, the study highlights these qualities as integral facets of Williams’s poetics, marking his as a proto- ecopoet. The dissertation closes with a broader historical contextualization of Williams’s ecopoetics as contrasted with other Modernists contemporary to his day – specifically Wallace Stevens and Lorine Niedecker. Through formal elements that mirror the previously argued traits of ecopoetics, we find Williams exceeding his peers and, I conclude, ultimately anticipating the kind of poetry we see being written by ecopoets in our own time. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Daniel E. Burke, B.A., M.A. I would like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to my director, Dr. Heather Hathaway, for her guidance, support, and counsel in bringing this project to its completion. She and my committee members, Dr. Milton Bates and Dr. Angela Sorby, have been exceedingly generous with their time, patience, and expertise. I’d especially like to thank Dr. Bates, who first taught me how to read Williams in a classroom context, and who kindly assented to take part in this project as an Emeritus Professor. Other Marquette University faculty have also been crucial to the success of this dissertation. My thanks go to the English Department for the funding they provided with my year-long departmental Dissertation Fellowship. Further, I am grateful for the guidance and assistance shown to me by department chair Dr. Kris Ratcliffe, who has been an instrumental part of my development as a classroom teacher, and Dr. John Curran, who is an enthusiastic and sincerely kind cheerleader, mentor, and friend. Within the community of William Carlos Williams scholars, I need to thank Dr. Erin Templeton, Dr. Ian Copestake, and Dr. Stephen Hahn, as well as poet and teacher JT Welsch, and Poetry Magazine Editor Don Share, all of whom offered either direct research input, or venues in which to test out the ideas of this dissertation in an academic community that is both passionate and welcoming. On a personal level, I need to thank the friends, colleagues, teachers, and students who supported me through years of talking, writing, and teaching about the ideas in this ii project. Specifically, Mrs. Alice Fox, the late Mr. Bob Thostenson, Mr. Robert Vermillion, Mrs. Mary Jo Newburg, the late Mr. James Fuller, and Dr. John Boly have all been models for the way I think about the things I read, and how I transmit my expertise to students. Thank you to my friends Andrew Doyle Fitzpatrick and Fr. Bill Lau for listening, and often asking the right questions. I’m also grateful to share the journey of being an Ignatian scholar/teacher with personal and professional colleagues such as Dr. Denna Iammarino and Corey Quinn Schneidewent – both of whom are in ways closer than family, and have alternately acted as sounding boards, challenging interrogators of my work, and personal support systems. No one deserves more heartfelt gratitude than my family. My father, who instilled in me a love of reading and learning; both of my mothers, who have offered counsel, and limitless love and support as well as (in Peg’s case) a proofreading eye; and Bob Titus, whose example and personal faith have shaped who I am today in myriad ways, all have my respect and appreciation. To my brother Aaron: thank you for never failing to ask if I was done yet. Finally, to the three most important people in my life: my children, Louis and Lisa, and my wife, Yuko. My children alternately acted as inspirations, interruptions, and impetus for finishing this project. And this dissertation and degree would not have been possible without Yuko’s kindness, support, trust, and patience. ありがとう。やった、 できた！ iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………i CHAPTERS I. INTRODUCTION……….…………………………………….………. 1 1) “One by one, objects are defined” ……………………………. 2 2) “an inward review”……………………………………………..9 3) “clarity, outline of leaf” ………………………………………11 II. AMERICAN (NATURAL) BEAUTY………………………..............15 1) Introduction…………………………………………….…......15 2) Poet of the Word/Poet of the Idea…………………………….16 3) Tree Songs………………..…………….………………….….29 4) From Compost, Renewal…………………..………………….44 5) Two Shepherds…………………………………...……..….…54 6) Conclusion…………………………………………………….60 III. THE FIRST SIGNS OF SPRING (AND ALL)……………...……...62 1) Introduction…………………………………….……...……...62 2) Spring and Renewal…………………………………………...66 3) Spring and the Imagination…………………………….……...77 4) Spring and Modernity……………………………….………...83 5) Conclusion……………….……………………………..……..93 IV. ACROSS THE PASSAIC IN PATERSON………………..…………95 1) Introduction……..……………………………….….………...95 iv 2) Paterson as (Biographical) Bioregion…………………….…...96 3) Paterson’s Proto-Environmental Poetry……………….…….107 4) The Seed of the Imagination………………………….……...118 Fire………………………...…………………….……...120 Seed………………………….………………….………123 Water…………………………………………….……...125 5) Conclusion……………………………..………………..…...129 V. SOME VERSIONS OF MODERNIST ECOPOETICS……….....…132 1) Introduction…………………………………....…………….132 2) Modernist Version of the Local.……………………………..134 3) “Compost Poetry”………...………………………………….150 4) Conclusion……………………………………………..…….167 VI. CONCLUSION……………………………………….……………170 1) “but what the hell does it mean?” ………………………...…170 Imagination……………………………………………..172 The Local…………………………………………….....174 Biocentrism……………………………………………..175 2) “O marvelous! what new configuration will come next?” .…179 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………..…..185 1 I. INTRODUCTION This study provides a guide to ecological and environmental qualities in the work of William Carlos Williams. It argues that although ecopoetics as a broader field of American poetry has only come to be defined and critically interrogated in the past few decades, Williams was clearly engaged (both implicitly and explicitly) in writing ecopoetry throughout his career during the first half of the twentieth century. I will argue that Williams was ahead of his time especially in two critical, and contemporarily relevant, areas: 1) his appreciation for the interrelatedness of humanity and the natural world, and 2) his philosophical centering upon his local environment as an ecosystem out of which that appreciation arose. Through close readings and critical analysis, I will show that his poetry reflects, and implicitly argues for, an understanding of humanity’s equality with (not superiority to) the rest of the natural world, and the interrelatedness of these equally valuable members of the biosphere, and that he revealed his understanding of the human role in relation to the nonhuman through his intimate knowledge of, and deliberate artistic focus upon, his local milieu. In the coming pages, I will trace how ecocritics have previously characterized ecopoetry, and how my use of the term both draws from and builds upon the most recent critical