Introspection And Contemporary Poetry

In this bold defense of so-called confessional poetry, Alan Williamson shows us that much of the best writing of the past twenty-five years is about the sense of being or having a self, a knowable personal identity. The difficulties posed by this subject help explain the fertility of contemporary poetic experiment--from the jaggedness of the later work of Robert Lowell to the montage--like methods of John Ashbery, from the visual surrealism of James Wright and W. S. Merwin to the radical plainness of Frank Bidart. Williamson examines these and other poets from a psychological perspective, giving an especially striking reading of Sylvia Plath.

This second edition includes all of the material from the first -- in-depth analyses of the work of such poets as George Oppen, John Ashbery, Robert Duncan, and William Bronk -- as well as a new Preface, and a lengthy chapter on the younger language poets.

"In Narcissus Sous Rature, Jody Norton argues that Contemporary American poetry's characteristic problematic is the subject's contestation of hir discursive condition. While self-comprehension is a central, recurrent concern in post-literate poetry, most poetries in English since the Enlightenment have conceived their lyric subjects in accordance with the foundational Western philosophical assumption of the rationality of being. However, after Freud, Heisenberg, Saussure, Derrida, and Lacan, conceptions of the lyric "I" as representative of a more or less permanent, self-conscious, and self-possessed personality, inhabiting an ontologically dependable natural and historical world in a consistent way are no longer credible." "The problems of how to conceptualize the psycho-linguistic structuration of the male (putatively masculine) subject and hir relation to hir cultural environment, and of how to represent both the subject and hir relations in a medium - language - that is complexly involved in the construction of both the subject and hir representation (and, in a certain sense, of the subject as representation) emerge, for Contemporary poets, out of an historic moment particularly strongly marked by theoretical developments in extra-literary fields. Norton asserts that the lyric speaker in Contemporary American poetry cannot be understood unless the explicit and implicit dialogic relations between religious, philosophical, psychological, linguistic, aesthetic, critical and poetic texts are made central to the interpretive project."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

THE LIGHT AND OTHER COLLECTED POEMS- Ms. McDaniel's first book of poetry- reflects the wide range of human emotions: love and loss in all its manifestations, redemption and discovery, ultimate joy and the depths of introspection. The reader is invited behind closed doors to witness the passions and the gut-wrenching spirit of that which is a personal and protected space. Ms. McDaniel's poems weave a rich tapestry, clear and eloquent, of life in all its wonder and challenge. Photographs and background stories make this an even more intimate journey as the voice of the poet emerges from conflict and struggle stronger than ever. Many of the pieces, while profoundly moving to any reader, are particularly empowering to women. Her poems strike the heart and reach into the soul, charting a unique new path into contemporary poetry. THE LIGHT leaves us touched by the mastery of the words and the emotions they invoke.

Contemporary poetry (Volume 2) presents poems of 60 representative poets around the globe. These poems are the intellectual mirror of our time.INDEXA.J. Huffman I Dream in Silence 1Adrienne Wolfert Lost Words 2Allison Grayhurst With the purity of a single intention 3Andrew M. Bowen PICKING FLOWERS 4Andrew Scott Different Embrace 5Austin Alexis Craving 6ayo ayoola-amale WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN? 7Bo Lanier Nothing Is Set In Stone 8Byron Beynon CARAVANSERAI 9Candice James Inversion 10Carol Smallwood Passage of Corn Fields 11-12Charles F. Thielman Oven 13Claire T. Field Fire and Icicles 14Dan Sklar HOW YOU READ 15Debra Ayis NO HERO 16Dianalee Velie BARS, STARS, & CARS 17Edith Speers Voices in the Air 18-19FERN G. Z. CARR I Touch a Singing Ghost 20G David Schwartz The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword 21Gary Pacernick SAUSALITO HARBOR 22Gonzalinho da Costa Our lives together... 23Hadaa Sendoo In the woods 24Heather Salter Dromm In Autumn, I Wait 25Howard Winn TALKING TO HAWKS 26Ingrid Gjelsvik between spring and neap tide 27Iqra Rehman Mirrors and Masks 28Ivy Lai Chun Chun CITY 29James Crickard A Glance 30-31Jim Newcombe WINTER SERENADE 32Joan McNerney Winter in New England 33Katie Johantges Sepia Colors 34Laura J. Minning i n t r o s p e c t i o n 35Leslie Marie In the Fast Lane 36Linda M. Crate misheard and misunderstood 37Lisa Zaran Gem 38Madeline Tiger SUN--DAY 39-40Marianne Lyon Roads 41Marianne Szlyk Grace Under Pressure 42-43Mark Hierholzer Trust me... 44Marsha Mathews Turning 35 45Marya Lenzi Trying Tai Chi 46Michael Lee Johnson Poem of Sinners and Saints 47Michelle Villanueva a parable for midday 48Miriam Sagan all courtyards are sad... 49 Hugh Fox Mozart 50Reid Kincaid Counting 51Rizvana Parveen Matrimony 52Sandra Kolankiewicz Obituary Page 53Sarah Brown Weitzman THE SEA 54Shari Jo LeKane-Yentumi Double Exposure 55Stella Vinitchi Radulescu Adoration of the Magi 56Stephen Jones Fall 2014 57Stephen McQuiggan SLOWLY UNSPOOLING ALONE 58Susan Dale A Love Poem 59Sylvia Riojas Vaughn My Muse 60TATJANA DEBELJACKI JAPANESE LANTERN 61Teresa Podemska-Abt in the care of the night 62-63Valentina Cano The Crafts 64Wendy Barker THE SHADOW 65Yannis A. Phillis SYNONYMS 66 Contributors' List 67-79

In the twentieth century more people spoke English and more people wrote poetry than in the whole of previous history, and this Companion strives to make sense of this crowded poetical era. The original contributions by leading international scholars and practising poets were written as the contributors adjusted to the idea that the possibilities of twentieth-century poetry were exhausted and finite. However, the volume also looks forward to the poetry and readings that the new century will bring. The Companion embraces the extraordinary development of poetry over the century in twenty English-speaking countries; a century which began with a bipolar transatlantic connection in modernism and ended with the decentred heterogeneity of post-colonialism. Representation of the 'canonical' and the 'marginal' is therefore balanced, including the full integration of women poets and feminist approaches and the in-depth treatment of post-colonial poets from various national traditions. Discussion of context, intertextualities and formal approaches illustrates the increasing self-consciousness and self-reflexivity of the period, whilst a 'Readings' section offers new readings of key selected texts. The volume as a whole offers critical and contextual coverage of the full range of English-language poetry in the last century.

Essays on the craft and relevance of poetry by distinguished practitioners and teachers of the art