american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
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98 AMERICAN POLITICAL POETRY<br />
comprehensive strategies have vast, global contexts, those with<br />
particular strategies have specific, focused (but expansive imag<strong>in</strong>ative)<br />
contexts. However, <strong>the</strong>ir similarities are more <strong>in</strong>structive than <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
differences, so <strong>the</strong> divide here is a f<strong>in</strong>e one used to suggest that <strong>the</strong> overarch<strong>in</strong>g<br />
context with<strong>in</strong> a <strong>political</strong> poem can have dramatic effects on our<br />
read<strong>in</strong>gs of <strong>the</strong>m. The poems discussed hereafter <strong>in</strong> chapter 2 have<br />
explicit contexts, several of which are dependent upon additional<br />
knowledge about <strong>the</strong> contexts for <strong>the</strong>ir production and publication.<br />
For <strong>in</strong>stance, Lev<strong>in</strong>e’s “They Feed They Lion” does not refer specifically<br />
to <strong>the</strong> 1967 Detroit riots, but Lev<strong>in</strong>e has repeatedly said that he<br />
wrote it <strong>in</strong> response to <strong>the</strong>m. Similarly, Bly’s “Count<strong>in</strong>g Small-Boned<br />
Bodies” does not expressly refer to Vietnam, but given his public pronouncements<br />
about <strong>the</strong> war, daily Pentagon body counts, and <strong>the</strong> section<br />
title of The Light Around <strong>the</strong> Body (1967) <strong>in</strong> which <strong>the</strong> poem<br />
appears, <strong>the</strong> context is obvious. Poems of particular equivocal agency,<br />
f<strong>in</strong>ally, usually speak to public issues that do not need direct reference<br />
<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> poem. The issues are ei<strong>the</strong>r urgent or <strong>the</strong> historical moment<br />
makes <strong>the</strong> context demonstrable.<br />
The first three poems considered here all emerged from one of <strong>the</strong><br />
most tumultuous decades <strong>in</strong> American history. The Vietnam War, <strong>the</strong><br />
Civil Rights Movement, high-profile assass<strong>in</strong>ations, and widespread<br />
antiwar protests and urban riots marked <strong>the</strong> 1960s as a decade of outrage<br />
and dissension. Poets entered <strong>the</strong> center of <strong>the</strong> maelstrom, so<br />
much so that American culture was “lyricized” dur<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> Vietnam era<br />
as citizens began to view <strong>poetry</strong> “as an <strong>in</strong>herently anti-establishment<br />
vehicle for <strong>the</strong>ir <strong>political</strong> expressions” (Bibby 7). In his study of<br />
Vietnam resistance <strong>poetry</strong>, Michael Bibby argues that American <strong>poetry</strong><br />
from 1965 to 1975 should be periodized as “Vietnam-era Poetry” and<br />
that any categorization of 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s <strong>poetry</strong> as<br />
“Postwar Poetry” obscures <strong>the</strong> true nature of our national and literary<br />
history (23–24). Robert von Hallberg also argues that 1965 heralded<br />
a critical shift <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> nation’s poetic sensibilities. After 1965, he<br />
laments, poets stopped us<strong>in</strong>g concessions, qualifications, adversatives,<br />
and “reasonable language” such as “even,” “is needful,” “never<strong>the</strong>less,”<br />
“not that,” “none as Yet” “let us only” 11 that was appropriate <strong>in</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> 1950s (American Poetry 129–130), a decade that some argue was<br />
characterized by a cultural consensus, at least among <strong>the</strong> middle and<br />
upper classes.<br />
Bly, W.S. Merw<strong>in</strong>, and Lev<strong>in</strong>e all entered <strong>the</strong>se public conversations,<br />
and all three wrote remarkable poems of equivocal agency. Bly<br />
was one of <strong>the</strong> most <strong>political</strong>ly active writers of his generation. In<br />
1966, he and David Ray founded American Writers aga<strong>in</strong>st <strong>the</strong>