Confessional Poetry, as we all know, is a school (or style) of poetry that focuses on the personal “I” and works to reveal, and therefore make readers witness to, the transgressions of the author’s life. These transgressions are extremely personal experiences that deal with the author’s psyche, personal trauma, and social taboos, such as being […]
In Katelyn Roth’s critical article, “‘The Human Heart Speaking’: Trauma in Selected Poems From Lucille Clifton,” Roth argues that Clifton showcases her desire and ability to move past her traumatic experiences by reclaiming the experience through poetry. The poems that Roth focuses on specifically are, “moonchild,” the “shapeshifter” poems, and also the poem, “what did […]
“A word” This word means something. It is a word that tells, tries, describes, can capsize. It is a word; it is singular. It has no relations. It has no contenders. It is a word, plentiful, rife with superstitions about itself. It takes up as much space as its letters can ward. Word is […]
I was browsing through the Addlestone book stacks looking for a suitable critical essay to examine for this week’s blog post when I discovered, in the Robert Lowell section, a work that delves into the craft and effect of poetic language. Admittedly, I was looking for a book on the feminist poetics in Adrienne Rich’s […]
Jayne Cortez’ poetry, despite its parallels to other poetic schools such as the Beats, the Black Mountain poets, and The New York school poets, participates in the Black Arts movement. The Black Arts movement, as Evie Shockley writes in her critical essay “The Black Arts Movement and Black Aesthetics,” was founded with the idea of […]
“Prost” Pray, Premonition, How devoted are you? Have you dressed yourself In woes and wills, fermented On this feted starlit hour? It’s true, I have never seen you so vapid. I have never seen you so you. Glassy-eyed pacifier Past your life’s attire. Achtung! Stage lights fall on faces Faltered, dim-black, mimetic. […]
The Aesthetic of Whimsy: A Close Reading of Koch’s “Permanently” In Brian M. Reed’s chapter, “The New York School,” Reed describes the New York poets as embracing the inherent playfulness of language. Their poems use poetic techniques that, at first glance, do not seem very sophisticated. Wordplay, puns, poetic association, whimsical discontinuity, comedy — these […]
An Expression I found I love you somewhere in pink and blue, breathe in and keep breathing, you hold words in silent pauses. Everything is being said. I love you too, then why speak at all. To feel, feel. I see depth and depth deal in soft […]
Hanna Reynolds Accepting The Sunflower Within Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Sunflower Sutra” explores how identity is put into crisis through the perversion of self and how it can be recovered by accepting a more complex outlook of one’s own identity. Ginsberg achieves this through a bombardment of direct and impassioned language and imagery; by paralleling pastoral […]