Evaluations of US Poetry since 1950, Volume 2
Evaluations of US Poetry since 1950, Volume 2
Mind, Nation, and Power
Horace speaks of poetry delighting and instructing. While Evaluations of US Poetry since 1950, Volume 1 explores the pleasures of poetry—its language, forms, and musicality—volume 2 focuses on the public dimensions. In this volume, von Hallberg and Faggen have gathered a diverse selection of poets to explore questions such as: How does poetry instruct a society with a highly evolved knowledge industry? Do poems bear a relation to the disciplined idioms of learning? What do poets think of as intellectual work? What is the importance of recognizable subject matter? What can honestly be said by poets concerning this nation so hungry for learning and so fixated on its own power? To these questions, the literary critics collected here find some answers in the poetry of Robert Pinsky, Susan Howe, Robert Hass, Anthony Hecht, Adrienne Rich, Sharon Olds, Ed Dorn, and August Kleinzahler.
Evaluations is an important intervention in the study of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American poetry. The book exemplifies the value of evaluative criticism by presenting provocative arguments about the value of specific poets.
Robert von Hallberg is a professor of literature at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author and editor of several books, including The Maltese Falcon to Body of Lies: Spies, Noirs, and Trust (UNM Press). Robert Faggen is the Barton Evans and H. Andrea Neves Professor of Literature at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author, editor, and coeditor of several books, including The Cambridge Introduction to Robert Frost.
Introduction
Robert von Hallberg and Robert Faggen
Intellectuality
Chapter One. Why the Poetry of Adrienne Rich Mattered and Still Matters
Charles Altieri
Chapter Two. Michael Palmer and the Linguistic Turn
V. Joshua Adams
Chapter Three. Susan Howe and Valuing
Oren Izenberg
Chapter Four. Fanny Howe’s Power
Peter O’Leary
Chapter Five. A Field Guide to Robert Hass
Richard Strier
Subject Matter
Chapter Six. Anthony Hecht: Worth the Weight
Jonathan F. S. Post
Chapter Seven. Ecovaluation
John Shoptaw
Chapter Eight. Sharon Olds and the Work of the Body
Sarah Nooter
Chapter Nine. "A Kind of Life": On Lucille Clifton and Community
Jonathan Farmer
Chapter Ten. Ed Dorn’s Vulgate
Keith Tuma
Nation
Chapter Eleven. Strange American Heart: August Kleinzahler
Patrick Morrissey
Chapter Twelve. Robert Pinsky’s Affirmations
Robert von Hallberg
Chapter Thirteen. On Michael O’Brien
August Kleinzahler
Power
Chapter Fourteen. Barbara Guest and Jorie Graham
Cal Bedient
Chapter Fifteen. Ashbery’s Power and the Phantom "I"
Laura Quinney
Conclusion
Robert Faggen and Robert von Hallberg
Contributors
Index
