Awake in America

Daniel Tobin

Description

As the first comprehensive study of Irish American poetry ever published, Awake in America seeks to establish a conversation between Irish and Irish American literature that challenges many of the long-accepted boundaries between the two. In this distinctive book, Daniel Tobin presents a series of essays that combine poetry and literary criticism to form what he calls the poet's essay.

The first section of Awake in America reconsiders the dual tradition of Irish poetry through discussions of nineteenth- and twentieth-century poets as well as contemporary writers. The second section features a series of shorter chapters on poets in America. The third section explores the theme of "Crossings" and includes a consideration of Irish American and African American literature. The fourth, and final, section is comprised of a compositional memoir in which Tobin explores the role of hidden history in his own long poem, "The Narrows."

Awake in America offers an innovative reading of literary tradition in light of the routes by which tradition evolves as well as the roots from which tradition originates. It will be welcomed by poetry aficionados and by all scholars and readers of Irish and Irish American literature.

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• Idioma inglés
• Idioma galés
• América
• Culture of the United States
• African-American literature
• Irish literature
• General officer
• Irish
• English
• Poetry
• General
• American
• European
• Welsh
• Scottish
• Musique irlandaise
• Anglais

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 30 octobre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268093754
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

A W A K E I N A M E R I C A

Other Books by Daniel Tobin

     

Where the World Is Made

Double Life

The Narrows

Second Things

Belated Heavens

        

Passage to the Center: Imagination and the Sacred in the Poetry of Seamus Heaney

       

The Book of Irish American Poetry from the Eighteenth Century to the Present

Light in Hand: Selected Early Poems of Lola Ridge

Poet’s Work, Poet’s Play: Essays on the Practice and the Art (with Pimone Triplett)

Awake in America

O N I R I S H A M E R I C A N P O E T R Y

D a n i e l T o b i n

U N I V E R S I T Y O F N O T R E D A M E P R E S S

N O T R E D A M E , I N D I A N A

Copyright © 2011 by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved

Published฀in฀the฀United฀States฀of฀America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Tobin, Daniel. Awake in America : on Irish American poetry / Daniel Tobin. p. cm. “Portions of many of these essays were given as papers over the years at regional, national, and international meetings of the American Conference for Irish Studies”—Pref. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN13: 9780268042370 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN10: 0268042373 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. American poetry—Irish American authors—History and criticism. 2. Irish Americans in literature. 3. National characteristics, Irish, in literature. I. Title. II. Title: Irish American poetry. PS153.I78T63 2011 811.009'89162—dc23 2011025683

For Ben and Emily

Contents

Preface ix

“Double Life”  xv

I . D O U B L E L I V E S

 Dinner at the Café Marliave

“Near Hag’s Head”  57

I I . R E A D I N G S

1

 Modernism, Leftism, and the Spirit: The Poetry of Lola Ridge 61

 The Westwardness of Everything: Irishness in the Poetry of Wallace Stevens

 Lines of Leaving, Lines of Returning: John Montague’s Double Vision 113

87

  Starting from Wexford, Ending in the Sublime: The Poetry of James Liddy 136

   Two for the Road: The New Irish Routes of Eamonn Wall and Greg Delanty

158

viiiC o n t e n t s

  The Parish and Lost America: The Witness of Michael Coady’sAll Souls

196

  Back Through Distance: Currents of Tradition in the Poetry of Louise Bogan and Thomas McGrath 217

“Crossings”  245

I I I . C R O S S I N G S

  The Need for Routes: Genealogy in Irish American Poetry

249

 From Crispus Attucks to Mr. Bones: Race in Irish American Poetry 279

 Over There: Irish American Poets Return

“A Green Road in Clare”  363

322

I V . T H E W A K E O F E V E R Y T H I N G G O N E

 Soundings and Erasures: An Irish American Poet Digs Up His Past

“The Line” 401

Notes 403 Works Cited 433 Index 445

367

Preface

The title of this book presents a double entendre to the reader. On the one hand it alludes to the oftperformed ritual of the American wake, that sad and raucous gathering experienced in so many nineteenth century townlands in which families unable to sustain any more mem bers at home feted their emigrant sons and daughters before they departed for the New World, likely never to come back again. On the other hand, it suggests an awakening in magical lands to the west, Tir na nÓg, the Country of the Young, the far end of those legendary journeys, theimmramaof Celtic legend. Though perhaps the title poses a triple entendre, for it also aims to affirm a creative and critical awareness of the presence and extent of Irish American poetry within the American literary tradition and also within the traditions of Irish poetry, more broadly conceived and considered. This last may prompt objections from scholars, critics, and poets who prefer to keep their ideas about tradition within longestablished boundaries, though one of the central intentions of the inquiry is to explore where such wellworn boundaries become permeable even if they do not entirely break down. Likewise, the essays that form the chapters ofAwake in Americaat times blur the boundaries between literary criticism and the personal essay, or what I would prefer to call the poet’s essay. As a poet and critic who happens to be Irish American by circumstance of history—really IrishandAmerican since I hold two passports—I have made an effort over the years to comprehend my own creative and critical preoccupa tions in light of that complex history, that convergence and divergence of lives and cultures. From such a vantage this book constitutes a poet’s critical musings in pursuit of selfdefinition, though the trajectory of this pursuit intends by and large to be more exploratory and outwardly directed than entirely retrospective to the poet’s lived experience and creative aspirations. For this reason the reader will also find a degree

ix