William Carlos Williams (1883-1963), who was the only poet to be published as both an Objectivist and an Imagist

The Objectivist poets were a loose-knit group of second-generation Modernists who emerged in the 1930s. They were mainly American and were influenced by, amongst others, Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. The basic tenets of Objectivist poetics as defined by Louis Zukofsky were to treat the poem as an object, and to emphasise sincerity, intelligence, and the poet's ability to look clearly at the world. This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... William Carlos Williams Dr. William Carlos Williams (sometimes known as WCW) (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963), was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. ... Ezra Pound, one of the prime movers of Imagism. ... Mountebanks ... Ezra Pound in 1913. ... William Carlos Williams Dr. William Carlos Williams (sometimes known as WCW) (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963), was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. ... The cover of the 1978 edition of Zukofskys long poem A. Louis Zukofsky (January 23, 1904 – May 12, 1978) was one of the most important second-generation American modernist poets. ...

The core group consisted of the Americans Zukofsky, Williams, Charles Reznikoff, George Oppen and Carl Rakosi, and the British poet Basil Bunting. Later, another American poet, Lorine Niedecker, became associated with the group. A number of other poets were included in early publications under the Objectivist rubric without actually sharing the attitudes and approaches to poetry of this core group. Although these poets generally suffered critical neglect, especially in their early careers, and a number of them abandoned the practice of writing and/or publishing poetry for a time, they were to prove highly influential for later generations of writers working in the tradition of modernist poetry in English. Charles Reznikoff (August 31, 1894 - January 22, 1976) was the poet for whom the term Objectivist was first coined. ... George Oppen, a picture now used as the cover for the recently published Selected Poems George Oppen (April 24, 1908 - July 7, 1984) was an American poet, best known as one of the members of the Objectivist group of poets. ... Carl Rakosi (November 6, 1903 – June 24, 2004) was the last surviving member of the Objectivist poets. ... Basil Cheesman Bunting (March 3, 1900 – April 17, 1985) was a British modernist poet. ... Lorine Niedecker (May 12, 1903 - December 31, 1970) was born on the Black Hawk Island near Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. ... a poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, which brought him to prominence. ...

Roots

Ezra Pound. His Imagist group was a major influence on the Objectivists. He also introduced many of the Objectivists to each other and enabled the Objectivist issue of Poetry magazine.

The period 1909 to 1913 saw the emergence of Imagism, the first consciously avant garde movement in 20th century English-language poetry. Pound, who was Imagism's prime mover, served as foreign editor of Harriet Monroe's magazine Poetry. In October 1912, he submitted three poems each by H.D. and Richard Aldington under the label Imagiste. Aldington's poems were printed in the November issue, and H.D.'s appeared in the January 1913 issue. The March 1913 issue of Poetry also contained Pound's A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste and F. S. Flint's essay Imagisme. This publication history meant that this London-based movement had its first readership in the United States. It also meant that Imagism was available as a model for American Modernist poets of the next generation. Ezra pound in 1913 from http://www. ... Ezra pound in 1913 from http://www. ... Ezra Pound in 1913. ... Poetry, published in Chicago, Illinois, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. ... Ezra Pound, one of the prime movers of Imagism. ... For other uses, see Avant-garde (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Harriet Monroe (1860-12-23 – 1936-09-26) was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, and patron of the arts. ... Poetry, published in Chicago, Illinois, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. ... // H. E. Monro edits The Poetry Review, journal of the Poetry Recital Society Harriet Munroe founds Poetry: A Magazine of Verse in Chicago (with Ezra Pound as foreign editor); in 1912 she described its policy this way: Ezra Pound, during a meeting with his one-time fiancee Hilda Doolittle in... H.D. in the mid 1910s Hilda Doolitle(September 10, 1886, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States – September 27, 1961, Zürich, Switzerland), prominently known only by her initials H.D., was an American poet, novelist and memoirist. ... Richard Aldington (July 8, 1892 – July 27, 1962) was an English writer and poet. ... Frank Stuart Flint (December 19, 1885 - February 28, 1960) was an English poet and translator who was a prominent member of the Imagist group. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... For Christian theological modernism, see Liberal Christianity and Modernism (Roman Catholicism). ...

Zukofsky was one such poet. He published a poem in Poetry in 1924 and introduced himself to Pound in 1927, when he sent the older poet his "Poem beginning 'The,'". Pound published the poem in his magazine The Exile, and a long correspondence and friendship between the two began. This relationship was strengthened by Zukofsky's 1929 essay on Pound's long work in progress The Cantos. Pound also provided an introduction to William Carlos Williams, another former Imagist who was living in New Jersey. Zukofsky and Williams quickly became close friends and were to be literary collaborators for the rest of Williams's life. // October 10 — Ezra Pound leaves Paris permanently and moves to Rapallo, Italy. ... // T.S. Eliot enters the Church of England and assumes British citizenship G.K. Chesterton, Collected Poems Robert Desnos, La liberté ou lamour! T.S. Eliot, The Journey of the Magi Allama Iqbal, Zabur-i-Ajam (Persian Psalms) James Weldon Johnson, Gods Promises James Joyce, Pomes Penyeach J... The eXile, founded in 1997, is a Moscow-based English-language biweekly free newspaper, aimed at the citys expatriate community, which combines outrageous, sometimes satirical, content with investigative reporting. ... Ezra Pound in 1913 The Cantos by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. ... “NJ” redirects here. ...

Charles Reznikoff standing on a bus in Brooklyn, reading a WC Williams poem

Another of Zukofsky's literary mentors at this period was Charles Reznikoff, a New York poet whose early work was also influenced by Imagism. By 1928, the young American poet George Oppen had become friendly with Zukofsky and Reznikoff. Another young American poet, Carl Rakosi, started corresponding with Pound around this time, and the older poet again put him in contact with Zukofsky. The final member of the core group, Basil Bunting, was an English poet who came from a Quaker background and who had been imprisoned as a conscientious objector during World War I. In 1923, Bunting met Pound in Paris and, once again, a close literary friendship developed. In 1930, Bunting published his first collection of poetry, Redimiculum Matellarum, and Pound introduced him to Zukofsky. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Charles Reznikoff (August 31, 1894 - January 22, 1976) was the poet for whom the term Objectivist was first coined. ... This article is about the state. ... George Oppen, a picture now used as the cover for the recently published Selected Poems George Oppen (April 24, 1908 - July 7, 1984) was an American poet, best known as one of the members of the Objectivist group of poets. ... Carl Rakosi (November 6, 1903 – June 24, 2004) was the last surviving member of the Objectivist poets. ... This article is about the English as an ethnic group and nation. ... “Quaker” redirects here. ... It has been suggested that Conscientious objection throughout the world be merged into this article or section. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... This article is about the capital of France. ...

It appears that the term Objectivist may have been used because Harriet Monroe insisted on a group name. It also seems that the core group did not see themselves as a coherent movement but rather as a group of individual poets with some shared approach to their art. As well as the matters covered in Zukofsky's essays, the elements of this approach included: a respect for Imagist achievement in the areas of vers libre and highly concentrated language and imagery; a rejection of the Imagists interest in classicism and mythology; for Reznikoff, Zukofsky, Rakosi and Oppen, a shared Jewish heritage (which, for all but Oppen included an early childhood in which English was not their first language); generally left-wing, and, in the cases of Zukofsky and Oppen at least, Marxist politics. Free verse (or vers libre) is a style of poetry that is based on cadences that are more irregular than those of traditional poetic meter. ... Classicism door in Olomouc, The Czech Republic Teatr Wielki in Warsaw Church La Madeleine in Paris Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicist seeks to emulate. ... For other uses, see Mythology (disambiguation). ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ...

Early publications

The first appearance of the group was in a special issue of Poetry magazine in February 1931; this was arranged for by Pound and edited by Zukofsky. As well as Bunting, Oppen, Rakosi, Reznikoff, Williams and Zukofsky, the issue included work by a number of poets who would have little or no further association with the group. These included Robert McAlmon, Kenneth Rexroth, Whittaker Chambers, Henry Zolinsky, John Wheelwright, Harry Roskolenkier and Martha Champion. Poetry, published in Chicago, Illinois, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. ... Robert Menzies McAlmon (March 9, 1896 - February 2, 1956) was an American author, poet and publisher. ... Kenneth Rexroth (December 22, 1905 – June 6, 1982) was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. ... Whittaker Chambers, 1948 Jay Vivian (David Whittaker) Chambers (April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer, editor, Communist party member and spy for the Soviet Union who defected and became an outspoken opponent of communism. ...

The issue also contained Zukofsky's essays "Program: 'Objectivists' 1931" and "Sincerity and Objectification: With Special Reference to the Work of Charles Reznikoff", a reworking of a study of Reznikoff's work originally written some time earlier. In this second essay, Zukofsky expands on the basic tenets of Objectivist poetics, stating that in sincerity "Writing occurs which is the detail, not mirage, of seeing, of thinking with the things as they exist, and of directing them along a line of melody", and that objectification relates to "the appearance of the art form as an object". This position echoes Pound's 1918 dictum (in an essay, "A Retrospective", in which he is looking back at Imagism) "I believe in technique as the test of a man's sincerity". Aristotles Poetics aims to give an account of poetry. ...

Some example poems

As an example, Zukofsky cites the following short section from A Group of Verse, a long poem sequence that was Reznikoff's contribution to the issue:

Among the heaps of brick and plaster lies

a girder, still itself among the rubbish.

In which the girder among the rubbish represents, for Zukofsky, the poem as object, sincere in itself. Oppen continued to refer to these lines as a poetic touchstone as late as 1976. A touchstone is a small tablet of dark stone such as fieldstone or slate, used for probing of precious metal alloys. ...

Oppen's own contribution was a poem titled "1930's", later collected (without the title) as the opening section of Oppen's first collection called Discrete Series, a book-length poem sequence.

Of his own poetry, Zukofsky chose to include "A" — Seventh Movement, the first part of a six-page section from what was to become an 800-page poem. This extract takes as its subject a set of roadworks in the street outside his New York home:

Language and poetry

Another aspect of Objectivist poetics that is not explicitly addressed in these essays is an interest in exploiting the resonances of small, everyday words. As Zukofsky was to write some time later (in 1946), "a case can be made for the poet giving some of his life to the use of the words the and a: both of which are weighted with as much epos and historical destiny as one man can perhaps resolve. Those who do not believe this are too sure that the little words mean nothing among so many other words." This concern is also reflected in Oppen's statement "if we still possessed the word 'is', there would be no need to write poems". Aristotles Poetics aims to give an account of poetry. ...

Reaction

Reaction to the issue was not uniformly welcoming, and the March 1931 issue of the magazine contained a hostile response by the editor herself under the title "The Arrogance of Youth". Monroe was particularly angered by Zukofsky's rejection of Edwin Arlington Robinson, Robert Frost, Edgar Lee Masters, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, all of whom were regular contributors to the magazine. However, not all reactions were so unfavourable; Niedecker read the issue at her home in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and wrote to Zukofsky, beginning a friendship and literary correspondence that would last until her death 40 years later. Edwin Arlington Robinson Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22, 1869 – April 6, 1935) was an American poet, who won three Pulitzer Prizes for his work. ... Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. ... Edgar Lee Masters (August 23, 1868 - March 5, 1950) was an American poet, biographer and dramatist. ... Edna St. ... Fort Atkinson is a city in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, United States. ...

The Poetry issue was followed by An Objectivist Anthology in 1932. This anthology featured far fewer poets than the Poetry issue, concentrating mainly on the core group. It also served to highlight the differences between these poets as much as their shared attitudes to writing. Much of the difference stemmed from Zukofsky's insistence on form over content, which conflicted with many of the other poets' concern with the real world. As Rakosi would later write: "if Reznikoff was an Objectivist, Zukofsky is not and never was one."

An Objectivist Anthology was published by To, Publishers, a small press run by Zukofsky, Reznikoff and George and Mary Oppen, and funded from Oppen's small private income. They operated from addresses in New York (Zukofsky) and Le Beausset, a town in France where the Oppens were living. The press also published a book by Williams (A Novelette and Other Prose) and two of Pound's prose books, How to Read and The Spirit of Romance, bound in one volume. They planned to reprint all of Pound's prose, but the press folded in 1932 before any move volumes appeared. Mary Oppen (b. ...

The Oppens returned to the United States in 1932 and, together with Zukofsky and Reznikoff, went on to form the Objectivist Press to publish more books of Objectivist work. Titles to appear included Williams' Collected Poems 1921–31 and Oppen's Discrete Series (with a preface by Pound), as well as a number of books by Reznikoff. The press folded in 1936.

Aftermath of Objectivism

George Oppen on board Galley Board, Long Island Sound, 1935; a picture featured on "Selected Poems" (2003)

In 1935, the Oppens joined the Communist Party of America, and George abandoned poetry in favour of political activism. In 1950, the couple moved to Mexico to escape the strongly anti-Communist political atmosphere of the times. It would be 1958 before Oppen wrote any further poetry. The Oppens returned to New York in 1960, and George went on to publish six books of poetry between 1962 and 1978, by which time he was finding it increasingly difficult to write—he had Alzheimer's disease. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for Of Being Numerous. Mary Oppen published an account of their life, including a close-up view of the Objectivist period, in her 1978 memoir Meaning a Life. George Oppen died in 1984. Image File history File links Goppenbook_cover_selected. ... Image File history File links Goppenbook_cover_selected. ... New York City waterways: 1. ... The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is one of several Marxist-Leninist groups in the United States. ... The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. ... As a literary genre, a memoir (from the French: mémoire from the Latin memoria, meaning memory) forms a subclass of autobiography, although it is an older form of writing. ...

After his 1941 Selected Poems, Carl Rakosi abandoned poetry and dedicated himself to social work for 26 years. A letter from the English poet Andrew Crozier about his early poetry encouraged Rakosi to start writing again. A collection, Amulet, was published by New Directions Publishers in 1967, and a number of other volumes were to appear over the following 46 years. These included his Collected Poems in 1986. Rakosi died in 2004, aged 100. Andrew Crozier (born 1943) is a poet associated with the British Poetry Revival. ... New Directions Publishers was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin after graduating from Harvard University. ...

After Redimiculum Matellarum, Bunting's next book publication was Poems: 1950. Around this time he returned to live in his native Northumbria, and the 1960s were to prove to be a very productive decade for him. Publications from this time include possibly his best-known work, the long poem Briggflatts (1966), described by critic Cyril Connolly as "the finest long poem to have been published in England since T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets", and Collected Poems (1968, revised editions 1978 and 1985). An Uncollected Poems appeared in 1991 and his Complete Poems in 2000. Section from Shepherds map of the British Isles about 802 AD showing the kingdom of Northumbria Northumbria is primarily the name of a petty kingdom of Angles which was formed in Great Britain at the beginning of the 7th century, from two smaller kingdoms of Bernicia and Diera, and... Briggflatts is a long poem by Basil Bunting. ... Cyril Vernon Connolly (10 September 1903 - 26 November 1974) was an English intellectual. ... Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 - January 4, 1965), was a major Modernist Anglo-American poet, dramatist, and literary critic. ... Four Quartets is the name given to four related poems by T. S. Eliot, collected and republished in book form in 1943. ...

In 1933, Niedecker was living in New York, and she and Zukofsky had a brief affair. She soon returned to her home in rural Wisconsin, a landscape that was to influence much of her later writing. Her first book, New Goose, appeared in 1946. In common with a number of her fellow Objectivists, a combination of critical neglect and personal circumstances meant that this early publication was followed by a longish period of poetic silence. Although she continued writing for much of the intervening period, her next book, My Friend Tree, did not appear until 1961. She published relatively frequently after that, and her Collected Works appeared in 2002.

In 1941, Reznikoff published a collection of poems called Going To and Fro and Walking Up and Down. After that, although he continued to write and to publish in periodicals, his poetry had no further book publication until the 1959 Inscriptions: 1944–1956. In 1962, New Directions published a selection of poems called By the Waters of Manhattan. Three years later, they brought out Testimony: The United States, 1885–1890: Recitative, the first instalment of a long work based on court records covering the period 1855 to 1915. The book was a commercial and critical flop, and New Directions dropped him. In the 1970s, Black Sparrow Press started publishing Reznikoff, bringing out the complete Testimony as well as a similar work, Holocaust, based on courtroom accounts of Nazi concentration camps. In the years after Reznikoff's death in 1976, Black Sparrow brought all his major works back into print. Black Sparrow Books, formerly known as Black Sparrow Press, is a small book publisher and an imprint of David R. Godin, Publisher. ... Nazism in history Nazi ideology Nazism and race Outside Germany Related subjects Lists Politics Portal         Nazism, or National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus), refers primarily to the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers Party, German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) under Adolf Hitler. ... A concentration camp is a large detention centre created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ...

Zukofsky had begun work on a long poem in 24 parts called A in 1927. The first seven "movements" of this work appeared in the Objectivist Anthology, having previously appeared in magazines. These early sections show the influence of The Cantos, though Zukofsky was to further develop his own style and voice as A progressed. The 1930s also saw him continue his involvement in Marxist politics, an interest that went back to his college friendship with Whittaker Chambers. Ezra Pound in 1913 The Cantos by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. ...

Although he would continue to write short poems and prose works, notably the 1963 Bottom: On Shakespeare, the completion of A was to be the major concern of the remainder of Zukofsky's writing life. As the poem progressed, formal considerations tended to be foregrounded more and more, with Zukofsky applying a wide range of devices and approaches, from the sonnet to aleatory or random composition. The final complete edition was going to press as the poet lay on his deathbed in 1978. His final written work was the index to this volume. Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch, one of the best-known early Italian sonnet writers. ... Look up aleatory in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Legacy

The early critical reception of the Objectivists was generally hostile, particularly in reviews by Morris Schappes and Yvor Winters, as well as Harriet Monroe's already-mentioned unfavourable reaction to the Poetry special issue. However, they did have an immediate impact, especially on the work of their two Imagist mentors, Williams and Pound. Williams and Zukofsky were to maintain a life-long personal and creative relationship which was to prove important for both men. For Zukofsky, the example of Williams helped to keep him focused on external realities and things. For Williams, Zukofsky served as a reminder of the importance of form. As Mark Scroggins writes, "from Zukofsky, Williams learned to shape his often amorphous verse into more sharply chiselled measures." Arthur Yvor Winters (October 17, 1900 - January 26, 1968) was an American literary critic and poet, noted as a critic of poetry and embroiled in controversy. ...

Pound, too, was influenced by the Objectivist sense of form, their focus on everyday vocabulary, and their interests in politics, economics and specifically American subject matter. The critic Hugh Kenner has argued that these influences helped shape the sections of The Cantos published during the 1930s, writing "Pound was reading them, and they him". Hugh Kenner (January 7, 1923 – November 24, 2003), Canadian literary scholar, critic, & professor. ...

The poets of the Beat Generation, a group of American bohemian writers to emerge at the end of the 1940s that included Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac, owed much to Pound and Williams, and were led, through them, to the Objectivists. In the 1950s and '60s, Zukofsky was sought out by younger poets including Paul Blackburn, Jerome Rothenberg, Jonathan Williams, Denise Levertov, Gilbert Sorrentino and Allen Ginsberg. His work was also well-known to the Black Mountain poets, especially Robert Creeley and Cid Corman, whose Origin journal and press were to serve as valuable publishing outlets for the older poet. Beats redirects here. ... Bohemians are inhabitants of Bohemia, in the Czech Republic. ... Irwin Allen Ginsberg (IPA: ) (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet. ... Young Gary Snyder, on one of his early book covers Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet (originally, often associated with the Beat Generation), essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. ... Jack Kerouac (pronounced ) (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist, writer, poet, and artist. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... Paul Blackburn (November 24, 1926 – September 13, 1971) was born in St. ... Jerome Rothenberg (born 1931) is an American poet and editor who is noted for his work in ethnopoetics. ... Jonathan Williams (born 1929) is an American poet, publisher, essayist, and photographer. ... This article includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Gilbert Sorrentino (April 27, 1929 – May 18, 2006) was an American novelist, short story writer, poet, literary critic, and editor. ... Irwin Allen Ginsberg (IPA: ) (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet. ... The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called the Projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American avant-garde or postmodern poets centered around Black Mountain College. ... Portrait taken in 1972 Robert Creeley (May 21, 1926 - March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. ... Cid Corman (1924 - March 12, 2004) was an American poet, translator and editor who was a key figure in the history of American poetry in the second half of the 20th century. ...

Zukofsky's formal procedures, especially his interest in aleatory writing, were a key influence on Jackson Mac Low and John Cage, amongst others, and through them on the Language School, an avant garde group of poets who started publishing in the 1970s and who included Bruce Andrews, Charles Bernstein, Ron Silliman, Lyn Hejinian, Bob Perelman, Michael Palmer, Rae Armantrout, Carla Harryman, Barrett Watten, Clark Coolidge, Hannah Weiner, Susan Howe, Tina Darragh and Fanny Howe. Jackson Mac Low (September 12, 1922 - December 8, 2004) was an American poet, performance artist, composer and playwright, known to most readers of poetry as a practioneer of systematic chance operations and other non-intentional compositional methods in his work, which Mac Low first experienced in the musical work of... For the Mortal Kombat character, see Johnny Cage. ... The Language or L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets were the most significant avant garde grouping in United States poetry in the last quarter of the 20th century. ... Bruce Andrews (born April 1, 1948) is an American poet who was one of the key figures associated with the Language poets (or L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets, after the magazine that bears that name). ... Charles Bernstein (born April 4, 1950) is an American poet, critic, editor and teacher. ... Ron Silliman (born August 5, 1946 in Pasco, Washington) is a contemporary American poet. ... Lyn Hejinian (born 1941) is a United States poet, essayist, translator and publisher. ... Bob Perelman is an American poet, critic, editor and teacher. ... Michael Palmer (b. ... Rae Armantrout (born 1947) is an American poet generally associated with the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E group of poets. ... Carla Harryman (born 1952) is a United States poet and playwright associated with the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E group of poets. ... Barrett Watten, American poet (b. ... Clark Coolidge (February 26, 1939 – ) is an American poet born in Providence, Rhode Island. ... Hannah Weiner (November 4, 1928 - 1997) was an American poet who was a prominent member of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E group of poets. ... Susan Howe (born 1937) is an Irish-born American poet and critic who is closely associated with the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E group of poets. ... Tina Darragh (born 1950) is an United States poet who was one of the original members of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E group. ... Fanny Howe (born 1940) is an United States poet and writer of fiction. ...

Oppen and Reznikoff influenced subsequent generations of poets, most notably, Theodore Enslin, Harvey Shapiro, Michael Heller, Norman Finkelstein, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, and Armand Schwerner to name a few. Their poetry continues the Objectivist obsession with language, ethics, and world and often addresses modern, urban, Jewish life, both secular and religious. DuPlessis, on first glance, seems an exception to this list. Her poetry seems not to immediately possess the so-called themes of an Objectivist aesthetic as practiced in the work of a Reznikoff, a Niedecker or an Oppen. Theodore Vernon Enslin (born March 25, 1925) is an American poet associated with Cid Cormans Origin magazine and press. ... Harvey Shapiro (b. ... Michael Heller (b. ... Rachel Blau DuPlessis (born 1941), American poet and essayist, is known as a feminist critic and scholar with a special interest in modernist and contemporary poetry. ... Armand Schwerner (1927-1999) was an avant-garde Jewish-American poet. ...

As a young woman and university student, DuPlessis began a life long correspondence with Oppen and was deeply influenced by Oppen's integrity, sincerity, and courage. Though establishing herself as a poet with tendencies and obsessions at some remove from an Objectivist ethos (or so it may be argued at a first reading) DuPlessis has played a crucial role in the dissemination and survival of Objectivist poetry and poetics well into the 21st century. The life of a man such as Oppen made a lasting impression on DuPlessis. DuPlessis gained Oppen's trust as well and she was given the opportunity of editing Oppen's Selected Letters, which were published posthumously. Ethos (ἦθος) (plurals: ethe, ethea) is a Greek word originally meaning the place of living that can be translated into English in different ways. ...

Bunting's physical presence in Newcastle in the 1960s, together with his close relationships with a number of younger poets (including Tom Pickard, Thomas A. Clark, Richard Caddel and Barry MacSweeney), meant that he was a major father figure for the poets of the British Poetry Revival. This younger generation were also drawn to the works of the other Objectivists, and their writings began to be more widely known in Britain. For example, a letter from the Revival poet Andrew Crozier was the trigger that prompted Rakosi's return to poetry. Tom Pickard (born 1946) is a poet, radio and film maker who was an important initiator of the movement known as the British Poetry Revival. ... Tom Clark is the Defensive Coordinator at Liberty University after going 2-18 in his second stint as head football coach at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. where he has been since 2004, helping rebuild the Division III program. ... Richard Caddel (July 13, 1949-April 1, 2003) was a poet, publisher and editor who was a key figure in the British Poetry Revival. ... Barry MacSweeney (July 17, 1948 - May 18, 2000) was an English poet and journalist. ... The British Poetry Revival is the general name given to a loose poetic movement in Britain that took place in the 1960s and 1970s. ... Andrew Crozier (born 1943) is a poet associated with the British Poetry Revival. ...

Amidst the continuous reappraisals, critical and otherwise, of the legacy and literary formation of the Objectivists, a well known mapping of the territory continues to be one put forth by poet Ron Silliman: "three-phase Objectivism". Though unclear, precisely, who coined the phrase, this rubric offers a useful way of dealing with the intercession of the Objectivist poets into our consciousness. Writes Silliman: Ron Silliman (born August 5, 1946 in Pasco, Washington) is a contemporary American poet. ...

 : .. the process requires you to position yourself within the terrain of a poetics. All any literary formation is, in one sense, is just such a process carried out consciously, collectively & in public.

To see that, one need only look at the three broad phases of Objectivism –

• § The 1930s, interactivity, optimism, joint publishing projects, critical statements, recruiting (Niedecker)

• § The 1940s & ‘50s, almost totally receding, with several Objectivists either not publishing and even not writing for long periods of time

• § 1960s onward, the emergence & success of these writers precisely as a literary formation^[1]

Notes

1. ^ from Silliman's Blog, October 30, 2002

References

Print

• DuPlessis, Rachel Blau & Peter Quartermain (eds) The Objectivist Nexus: Essays in Cultural Poetics, (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1999). ISBN 0-8173-0973-X
• Kenner, Hugh, The Pound Era (Faber and Faber, 1975 edition). ISBN 0-571-10668-4
• McAllister, Andrew (ed) The Objectivists: An Anthology (Bloodaxe Books, 1996). ISBN 1-85224-341-4.
• Perloff, Marjorie, "Barbed-Wire Entanglements": The "New American Poetry," 1930–1932" in Modernism/modernity - Volume 2, Number 1, January 1995, pp. 145–175.

Rachel Blau DuPlessis (born 1941), American poet and essayist, is known as a feminist critic and scholar with a special interest in modernist and contemporary poetry. ... Hugh Kenner (January 7, 1923 – November 24, 2003), Canadian literary scholar, critic, & professor. ... Marjorie Perloff is a poetry critic and professor emerita of English literature at Stanford University. ...

Online

• Objectivist timeline Captured, October 10, 2005.
• Andrew Crozier: On Carl Rakosi's Life and Career Captured October 13, 2005.
• Milton Hindus: Charles Reznikoff: A Biographical Essay Captured October 13, 2005.
• Joseph G. Kronick: George Oppen's Life and Career Captured October 13, 2005.
• Mark Scroggins: A Biographical Essay on Louis Zukofsky Captured October 10, 2005.
• Richard Caddel: Minor Poet, Not Conspicuously Dishonest: Basil Bunting at 100 Captured October 27, 2005.
• Peter Nicholls: Modernising Modernism: from Pound to Oppen Captured November 14, 2005.

is the 283rd day of the year (284th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 283rd day of the year (284th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 300th day of the year (301st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Four poems by Basil Bunting Captured November 23, 2005.
• Some poems by Lorine Niedecker Captured November 23, 2005.
• A poem by George Oppen Captured November 23, 2005.
• Some poems by Carl Rakosi Captured November 23, 2005.
• Two versions of a poem by Charles Reznikoff Captured November 23, 2005.