G.C. Waldrep and "Battery Smith-Guthrie"

"Battery Smith-Guthrie" (link to Google Book; the poem can be read in its entirety in the preview)

I just finished reading the better part of G.C. Waldrep's Disclamor, and I gotta be honest, it's a little intimidating to try and approach it with a critical eye. This collection of postmodern poetry, published in 2007, is loosely focused around a series of 9 "battery" poems, written by Waldrep on-location while visiting military batteries along the coast of California. I was assigned the piece "Battery Smith-Guthrie" to look at for my English class, but it's my first time attempting to review anything even vaguely postmodern - so bear with me...

The poem begins with references to the Miwok, a group of Native Americans indigenous to Northern California. The culture of the Miwok is similar to that of many other Native American in regards to its focus on mythology: animal and human spirits are the basis for their religion, and in the poem a story featuring Coyote, the Miwok ancestor and creator God, is intertwined with segments of Waldrep's own poetry and samplings of graffiti present on the battery itself.

I really like the way Waldrep draws attention to the power of images in "Battery Smith-Guthrie." In the second stanza, he says "The purpose of images / is to attract other images..." and later states "Like attracts like. "One" is never large enough, nor "two."." This is followed with a stanza demonstrating his claims in action: the verbal images of graffiti on the battery, written in all caps in the context of the poem, have grown over time, attracting others' additions. This presentation of the montage of verbal imagery as graffiti on the batteries is a theme evident in all the poems in this cycle: for me, it's Waldrep's way of demonstrating the power of words and images and how they in turn can attract the images of others.

Waldrep also shows the power that physical images of words can have in the actual form of his poetry: many of the collection's poems use a non-traditional layout, and I find this to be a very important aspect of them as pieces of artwork and literature. My friend John over at The Poetry Party hits on this with a little pseudo-scientific experiment on removal/editing of form in a "battery" poem, and I find that taking away Waldrep's spacings and line breaks somehow detracts from the actual pieces (albeit in a way that I can't really make tangible or fully describe if asked to). Maybe that fact, in and of itself, proves my point about the form's importance: it defies logical (analytical) explanation, and is a testament to the visceral power images can have.

“Orpheus Alone”: Continuing to Explore Themes of Loss and Longing in Mark Strand’s The Continuous Life

"Orpheus Alone" on the Poetry Foundation website 

“Orpheus Alone”: Continuing to Explore Themes of Loss and Longing in Mark Strand’s The Continuous Life

            “Orpheus Alone” is the fifth poem in Mark Strand’s book of poetry The Continuous Life (1990). Not only was it published the same year as his designation as Poet Laureate of the United States, it was also the first book of poetry Strand had written in ten years, since his 1980 book Selected Poems. During the 1980s, Strand seemed dissatisfied with himself and his work, saying about this period that he “didn’t like what [he] was writing” and “didn’t believe in [his] autobiographical poems” (“Mark Strand: The Poetry Foundation”). As a result, he departed from poetry and spent his time writing short stories and prose, critiques of art, and even several children’s books. In this regard, The Continuous Life was not only a reflection of Strand’s time off, but perhaps more importantly a potential opportunity to reinvent himself as a poet and author.

            The Continuous Life is made up of several types of literature: short poems, longer and less “rigid” works, and multi-part narrative pieces that blur the lines between poetry and prose. “Orpheus Alone” appears as the first of the longer, less structured poems in the volume, and comes after four poems that focus on themes of loss and longing. Its title is a reference to the story of the Greek mythological character Orpheus, who famously failed to recover his wife Eurydice from Hades and the Underworld. The poem itself is a hypothetical foray into Orpheus’ creative process and psyche after his failed expedition. In this way, Strand envisions an epilogue to the Orpheus myth. He tells of Orpheus writing three great poems and describes the content of these poems, as well as providing insight to the unique creative processes and emotions that drive the creation of each poem.

            The poem, being the first longer work of The Continuous Life, gives Strand a chance to focus on the themes of longing, loss, and beauty that are present in the rest of the book. He uses “Orpheus Alone” for precisely this, doing so by describing in chronological order the fictitious poems that Orpheus writes. First, Orpheus’ original poem is described - a poem that focuses on the physical beauty of Eurydice and his anguish over losing her. Orpheus dwells on “Her forehead where golden light of evening spread…” and dreams that his words can bring back the images of his lover that he so desperately misses.  Strand’s description of this poem is presented in a single, impressive sentence; it is more than 15 lines long, and his use of incredibly long sentences and fragmented, detailed images effectively wrap the reader in the whirlwind of painful emotion that is engulfing Orpheus.

Next, the creative process surrounding his second poem is detailed. Orpheus writes this poem spontaneously - he has wandered aimlessly around the countryside in an attempt to forget Eurydice and recreate his world without her, and the poem comes forth with “…such speech of newness that the world [is] swayed…” However, Strand downplays this second poem’s importance, commenting that this second great poem is one that “…no one recalls anymore.” Perhaps Strand does this because the poem is written from a place of denial. Orpheus is trying to cast aside his feelings of loss instead of embracing them, and by devaluing the second poem Strand is telling us that denial is not the way to cope with these feelings. Instead, he presents a method for dealing with loss by introducing the creation of Orpheus’ third poem, which is described as the greatest of the three.

Interestingly, the content of this third poem is not mentioned at all; instead, Strand describes only the emotions accompanying the formation of the work. He does so with an incredible vividness that has often been an element of his poetry writing, according to critic Jay Parini ("Mark Strand's Life and Career"). The third poem, Strand says, comes out as a physical extension of a world “Where death is reborn and sent into the world as a gift, / So the future, with no voice of its own, nor hope / Of ever becoming more than it will be, might mourn.”  From language such as this, it is abundantly clear that Strand is choosing to use “Orpheus Alone” to further the same themes of loss and confusion that he alludes to in the first four poems of his book. In an interview, Strand describes the poem as “giving loss a contour or a form that makes the actual experience of loss bearable” ("Poetry Archive"). However, the poem does not give explicit answers for dealing with loss; instead, it tells us what not to do. We should not try to hide our dark feelings, Strand is saying. Death, loss, and the inevitable aftereffects accompanying these experiences are meant to be expressed! “Orpheus Alone” shows us the power that such expression can have, and by describing this power in Orpheus’ story, Strand encourages us as readers to further explore with him the themes of loss and longing – two of the overarching themes upon which The Continuous Life focuses.

Works Cited

"Mark Strand: The Poetry Foundation.” The Poetry Foundation: Find Poems and Poets.  

            Discover Poetry. Web. 5 Feb. 2011. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/ 

            mark-strand>.

"Orpheus Alone by Mark Strand - Poetry Archive." Poetry Archive. Web. 11 Feb. 2011. <http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=9549>.

Parini, Jay. "Mark Strand's Life and Career." Modern American Poetry, University of         Illinois.  1994. Web. 6 Feb. 2011.              <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/strand/life.htm>

Mark Strand and The Continuous Life: A Biography

Mark Strand and The Continuous Life: A Biography

            Mark Strand’s writing is highly regarded by critics and fans alike, as evidenced by his many awards and distinctions, which include the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for the collection Blizzard of One and his appointment as Poet Laureate of the United States in 1990. Over the last 40 years, Strand has written both poetry and prose, and has also served as editor and translator for various poetry collections (Mark Strand). He has also taught at many prestigious American universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins, and is currently working at at Columbia University in New York City as Professor of English and Comparative Literature (“Mark Strand –Poets.org”).

Strand is considered by many literary critics to be among the most influential and prominent of contemporary American poets. Born on April 11, 1934, in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada, Strand grew up in he United States and lived in many different American cities due to the nature of his father’s profession as a salesman (“Mark Strand”). In his adolescence, Strand was very interested in painting. He had aspirations of becoming a professional artist, studying painting at Yale and receiving a B.F.A. in 1959. He also earned his B.A. at Antioch College in 1957, but around this time his interests shifted, and he began to concentrate instead on poetry. Following his graduation from college, he spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar studying 19^th century Italian poetry, and subsequently earned a M.F.A. from the University of Iowa (“Mark Strand: The Poetry Foundation”).

Since the completion of his formal education, Strand has been an active American poet, publishing over 15 collections of original works between 1964 and the present. His work is known for its elements of absence, and he often wrote in his early years on darker themes such as death and evoked feelings of general uneasiness (“Mark Strand –Poets.org”). The speakers in his poems are frequently in a state of unrest, and struggle with self-identity and the meaning of their place in the world. There is a sense of “apprehension and foreboding” in Strand’s earlier work, according to Thomas McClanahan, and this sense has continued somewhat throughout his writing career. However, his later works have grown to embrace and affirm life and are somewhat broader in their scope of emotions (“Mark Strand”). Strand’s poetry is also recognized as having frequent elements of surrealism: many of his poems, especially his more recent work, are set in dreams or use dream-like imagery. Finally, Strand is often noted for his use of precise and vivid language, writing with a clarity that has been described as “reminiscent of the paintings of Edward Hopper” (Parini, "Mark Strand's Life and Career").

Strand’s 1990 work The Continuous Life, published the same year Strand was named Poet Laureate, marked his return to poetry after a ten-year break, as he spent the 1980’s concentrating on short stories and books for children (“Mark Strand: The Poetry Foundation”). The collection does indeed reflect an increase in Strand’s diversity, with a wide scope of subjects and themes and the inclusion of more humor, as well as several longer narrative works that are more prose than poetry (Aaron, "Mark Strand's Life and Career"). It also demonstrates Strand’s overall development as an author, and notable reviewers’ comments on the book were overwhelmingly positive, praising a new depth and breadth in Strand’s writing. Perhaps Michael Dirda put it most bluntly in his review of the collection: "These are terrific poems. Mark Strand's not the poet laureate for nothing" (“Mark Strand”).

Bibliography of Mark Strand’s Published Poetry Books

    * Sleeping with One Eye Open. New York: Stone Wall Press, 1964.

    * Reasons for Moving: Poems. New York: Atheneum, 1968.

    * Darker: Poems, including "The New Poetry Handbook”. New York: Atheneum,                         1970.

    * The Story of Our Lives. New York: Atheneum, 1973.

    * The Sargentville Notebook. Providence: Burning Deck, 1973.

    * Elegy for My Father. Vancouver: Windhover, 1978.

    * The Late Hour. New York: Atheneum, 1978.

    * Selected Poems, including "Keeping Things Whole". New York: Atheneum, 1980.

    * The Continuous Life. New York: Knopf, 1990.

    * Selected Poems. New York: Knopf, 1990.

    * The Monument. New York: Ecco Press, 1991.

    * Dark Harbor: A Poem, long poem divided into 55 sections. New York: Knopf, 1993.

    * Blizzard of One: Poems. New York: Knopf, 1998.

    * Chicken, Shadow, Moon & More, with illustrations by the author. New York:

Turtle Point Press, 1999.

    * Man and Camel. New York: Knopf, 2006.

    * New Selected Poems. New York: Knopf, 2007.

Works Cited

Aaron, Jonathan. "Mark Strand's Life and Career." Modern American Poetry, University of           Illinois. 1995. Web. 6 Feb. 2011.            <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/strand/life.htm>.

"Mark Strand." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Gale Biography In     Context. Web. 5 Feb. 2011.

<http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow ?displayGroupName=Reference&prodId=BIC1&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CH1000095816&mode=view&userGroupName=inspire&jsid=b40b90ce289ad04dca1b80cc108a62d7>.

"Mark Strand: The Poetry Foundation.” The Poetry Foundation: Find Poems and Poets.  

            Discover Poetry. Web. 5 Feb. 2011. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/ 

            mark-strand>.

"Mark Strand – Poets.org." Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. Web. 5 Feb. 2011.    <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/102>.

Parini, Jay. "Mark Strand's Life and Career." Modern American Poetry, University of Illinois.        1994. Web. 6 Feb. 2011.        

<http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/strand/life.htm>.

Respecting the Image: Elements of Modernism in Mark Strand’s Luminism

Respecting the Image: Elements of Modernism in Mark Strand’s Luminism

In a traditional sense, luminism refers to an American landscape painting style of the 1870’s, focusing on the (often sublime) effects of light in landscapes (Merriam Webster, 2011). This definition is clearly reflected in Mark Strand’s poem Luminism, as a good portion of the work reads like a textual representation of a Luminist painting, expressing the beauty and spirituality of light in nature. The poem is presented in a modern, free-verse style, with no perceptible rhyme scheme. It is written out almost matter-of-factly, a single stanza with line breaks that seem to aim mainly for uniform length of line and continuity. However, this simple presentation is in marked contrast with the poem itself, as Strand writes with a nuanced and chosen language with elements of modernism that clearly marks the piece as poetry versus a simple retelling of a past event.

Throughout the poem, Strand displays a conciseness in his descriptions and word choice. In the combination of his focus on the sunset’s brevity and his laconic writing, he perfectly reflects Ezra Pound’s ideas of what an image in poetry should be - an “intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time” free of superfluous words and phrases.

The piece describes a memorable sunset that the author experiences with some friends in the city one evening. The poem focuses on describes his reaction to its fleeting nature and an accompanying mysterious “cry” whose meaning is left to the reader to ascertain. In his description of a sunset, Strand captures a beautiful moment in time, using the metaphor of a “golden fire” for the sun’s all-encompassing rays. He draws specific attention to the juxtaposition between the sunset’s brevity and its importance. Even though the moment of the sunset was brief, it has lasting effects in his mind, as he compares its power to a kind of sharp, recurring dream. We’ve all experienced this well-known phenomenon: that same powerful dream you have over and over, its details more clear each time you suddenly wake up from it.

His friend Philip’s cryptic commentary on the sunset midway through the poem is also striking: this moment, this segment of the sunset they experience, is just “… one in an / Infinite series of hands…” says Philip, clearly in awe of the instant. The metaphor of hands as the sun’s rays may conjure up a religious image for some: God is reaching down to Earth in this sunset, bathing all of creation in His divine light. However, there is no overt mention of religion in the poem, and overall the work itself does not have decidedly religious tones. Rather, it seems to focus on overall aesthetics, especially the representation of light, and a mysterious contrast between the moment of sunset and what happens soon after this event.

Strand does not come back to the sunset in the latter portion of the poem; instead, he finishes with commentary on an unnamed cry that rises up and begs to be explained by saying “…I had no idea what it [this cry?] meant until now.”  Many questions rise from this final musing. Do any of us know what this cry means?  Is this cry joyous or melancholy? This portion is such a departure from the earlier section that it’s hard to know what to make of it. What purpose does this final contrasting passage serve? Perhaps by focusing on the subtlety of the cry, the cry that came “so lightly [the poem’s subjects] might live out [their] lives and not know” its effect, Strand is simply asking us to heed its importance. It’s very hard to hear, but is something that has the potential to “touch us as nothing else would.”

Through his verbal portrait of a sunset, Strand urges us to pay attention to and give due importance and respect to the brief fragments of beauty and power in our lives, no matter how fleeting or minute they seem. In doing so, we may eventually come to an individual understanding of the significance of these events, much like the realization the speaker comes to at the end of the poem. Similarly, modernism’s focus on effectively distilling and encapsulating images is demonstrated by Strand in his use of concise metaphors and bold yet simple statements and observations.

Works Cited

"luminism." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2011. Merriam-Webster Online.            29 Jan 2011 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hacker>.

Individual Poet Project: Intro

Over the past month or so, our class has been working on a variety of poetry-themed projects. One of these was the Individual Poet Project, in which each of us as students selected a contemporary American poet and basically immersed ourselves in his/her life and work, focusing specifically on one (non-compilation/"selected works"-type) book by that author.
The project evolved in its details as we progressed, and ended up consisting of four papers:
1. An analysis of a shorter poem from the selected volume of poetry
2. A biography of our chosen author.
3. Another poem analysis, this time focusing on the poem relates to the overall book and its themes.
4. A final, more detailed review of the volume.

To fulfill the details of this assignment, I'll be posting slightly revised versions of all four papers on this blog for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!