As we've discussed in class already, there's a certain bias inherent to our contemporary canons privileging prose — and specifically fiction (and even more specifically, the novel) — over all other genres. This was not always the case. If you were to take a traditional literary criticism course (i.e. one using a venerable text like Hazard Adams' Critical Theory Since Plato) most of your readings would be what might reasonable called explorations of poetics up until well into the 19th century, since that was dominant literary genre.
Nonetheless, poetry does occupy a somewhat marginalized place in the present, and is somewhat unfairly notorious for being both intimidating and impenetrable. As a poet, I'm disheartened by this characterization — which often, I think, is rooted in the disjuncture between traditional verse and more adventurous modern poetic forms, along with the misconception that you can "answer" this sort of poetry as if it was a riddle. Instead of there being one correct interpretation, there's a lot of room for individual response, but that can be a scary prospect, particularly when you're not very comfortable or familiar with the genre. So, for the sake of making you more comfortable, I present the following resources:
First, I've put together a basic set of Tools for Analyzing Poetry, which I often give to classes as a resource, that offers two approaches for readers to make their way through a poem: the first, a very rudimentary, brick-by-brick method that works its way from the most basic details to overall understanding; the second an excellent set of questions borrowed by poet and critic Ann Lauterbach. There are also some general instructions regarding the proper quotation and citation of poetry in academic writing.
In addition to that, I'd like you to read a few short poetics essays by a handful of notable 20th/21st century American poets, and in each case I've provided a few representative poems from each so that you can explore the relationship between their ideas as expressed in their prose vs. those in poetic form:
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| Adrienne Rich |
Adrienne Rich
- "Someone is Writing a Poem" [link]
- "Diving Into the Wreck" [link] [video] [MP3]
- "What Kind of Times Are These" [link] [MP3]
- "Delivered Clean" [link]
Frank O'Hara
- "Personism: a Manifesto" [PDF]
- "A Step Away from Them" [link]
- "Personal Poem"[link]
- "Poem ['Lana Turner Has Collapsed']" [link] [audio]
- "The Day Lady Died" [link] [video]
- "Ave Maria" [link]
Charles Bernstein
Finally, because the sonic aspects of poetry, whether performed or recorded, are an oft-neglected but important characteristic of the medium, I humbly offer up my observations on Charles Bernstein's 1976 tapework piece, "Class" (this excerpt is taken from a longer article, with the opening paragraphs followed by my discussion of this specific piece). I do so not because it's particularly brilliant, but rather because it's close at hand.
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One last tool, not to be read for Wednesday, but rather filed away for future use — the Poetry Foundation's excellent glossary of poetic terms that covers five basic categories: forms and types, rhythm and meter, schools and periods, techniques and figures of speech, and theory and criticism.
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