Holding Patterns

Daniel Mcguiness

Description

Holding Patterns provides a sympathetic criticism of poems, one that avoids the appliance of criticism and that self-consciously persists in close readings of texts as the directing force of its argument. Presently, contemporary literary criticism and contemporary poetry in America seem at cross-purposes. Indeed, current literary critics seldom address the poems of their contemporaries. While structuralists and other schools of critics seek terms, generalizations, and whole systems to account for and to understand poems, poets themselves repeatedly assert that each poem has its own poetic and that no system applies to their writing. This book reads poems by contemporary poets, such as Jorie Graham, Charles Wright, Denis Johnson, and Amy Clampitt, not to illuminate a theory but to shed light on the poem.
Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART I. TEMPORARY THESIS

1. The Static Pulse

2. Recounting Linda Gregg's Ghosts

3. Jorie Graham in Stitches

PART II. TEMPORARY TACTICS

4. Pictura Poesis: Galvin and Lowell

5. James Wright, Louis Gluck: The Colon

6. Water Everywhere: Merwin, Stafford, Dugan, Merrill

7. Forche, Fenton, and Fighting

PART III. TEMPORARY FIGURES

8. Taking or Leaving It: Amy Clampitt

9. Holes in the Web: Denis Johnson

10. The Long Line in Jorie Graham and Charles Wright

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• USA
• United States of America
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 22 mars 2001
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791490822
• Langue: English

Extrait

HOLDING PATTERNS

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HOLDING PATTERNS

Temporary Poetics in Contemporary Poetry

Daniel McGuiness

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

All permissions to reprint copyrighted materials are listed in the acknowledgments.

For information, address State University of New York Press State Street, Suite, Albany, NY

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McGuiness, Daniel Matthew. Holding patterns : temporary poetics in contemporary poetry / Daniel McGuiness. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN–––(hc : alk. paper) — ISBN–––(pbk. : alk. paper) 1. American poetry—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Poetics. I. Title.

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PS.M  ′.—dc –

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For My Wife and in memory of My Mother

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A

I

PART I TEMPORARY THESIS

O The Static Pulse

C

T Recounting Linda Gregg’s Ghosts

T Jorie Graham in Stitches

PART II TEMPORARY TACTICS

F Pictura Poesis: Galvin and Lowell

F James Wright, Louise Glück: The Colon

S Water Everywhere: Merwin, Stafford, Dugan, Merrill

S Forché, Fenton, and Fighting

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PART III TEMPORARY FIGURES

Contents

E Taking or Leaving It: Amy Clampitt

N Holes in the Web: Denis Johnson

T The Long Line in Jorie Graham and Charles Wright

C

N

B

I

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A

“A la Pintura” fromSelected Poemsby Rafael Alberti translated and edited by Ben Bellit. CopyrightThe Regents of the University of California. Re- by printed by permission of the University of California Press.

Interview with John Ashbery fromThe Craft of Poetry: Interviews From the New York Quarterly. CopyrightNew England Publishing Associates. Re- by printed by permission of New England Publishing Associates.

“The Anniversary,” “Beach Glass,” “The Burning Child,” “The Dahlia Garden,” “The Local Genius,” “Procession at Candlemas,” and “Tepoztlan” fromThe King- fisherAmy Clampitt. Copyright by  by Amy Clampitt. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf Inc.

Excerpt from#fromThe Dream Songsby John Berryman. Copyrightby John Berryman. Copyright renewed by Kate Donahue Berryman. Re- printed by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc.

FromThe Complete Poems of Emily Dickinsonby Emily Dickinson. Copyright ,by Martha Dickinson Bianchi; copyrightrenewed,by Mary L. Hampson. By permission of Little Brown and Company.

Interview with Alan Dugan by Edward Nobles, copyright. Reprinted by permission ofAmerican Poetry Review.

“Dead Soldiers” fromThe Memory of War and Children in Exileby James Fenton. Reprinted by permission of the Peters Fraser & Dunlop Group Ltd.

“The Colonel” fromThe Country Between UsCarolyn Forché. Copyright by   by Carolyn Forché. Originally appeared inWomen’s International Resource Exchange.Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

“El Salvador: An Aide Memoir” by Carolyn Forché. Copyright. Reprinted by permssion ofAmerican Poetry Review.

“Expatriate” from TheCountry Between Usby Carolyn Forché. Copyright by Carolyn Forché. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

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