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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Conclusion<br />
Part One<br />
In this book I have tried to chart what I perceive are <strong>the</strong> major<br />
rhetorical strategies of <strong>political</strong> poems <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> United States from <strong>the</strong><br />
mid-1960s to <strong>the</strong> present. In order to expla<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> general dist<strong>in</strong>guish<strong>in</strong>g<br />
features as well as <strong>the</strong> subtleties of each strategy, especially <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
attendant figures of voice, I chose poems that best represent that<br />
strategy’s overall qualities. However, many of <strong>the</strong>se poems push, challenge,<br />
and sometimes overrun <strong>the</strong> boundaries I established. I fully<br />
believe that <strong>the</strong> strategies are dist<strong>in</strong>ct, but <strong>the</strong>y can overlap <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g<br />
ways. I leave it to <strong>the</strong> reader to make <strong>the</strong> overlapp<strong>in</strong>g connections<br />
between strategies with<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>dividual poems. I tried to strike a balance<br />
between hav<strong>in</strong>g firm, well-del<strong>in</strong>eated categories and flexible ones that<br />
are critic-, reader-, poem-, and poet-friendly. In o<strong>the</strong>r words, I did not<br />
want to isolate strategies <strong>in</strong> a mutually exclusive way. Lev<strong>in</strong>e’s “They<br />
Feed They Lion” exemplifies a poem that shades <strong>in</strong>to ano<strong>the</strong>r type of<br />
poetic agency. Though its primary strategy is particular equivocal<br />
agency, Lev<strong>in</strong>e draws heavily on his own experiential agency. Yet he<br />
abstracts, disguises, and redirects that personal experience so as to<br />
conceal its connection to him <strong>in</strong> a transparent way. Fur<strong>the</strong>r, this connection<br />
is understandable mostly due to his comments <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>terviews<br />
about <strong>the</strong> poem. “They Feed They Lion” thus shows primarily equivocal<br />
agency; only an extensive <strong>in</strong>vestigation reveals how experience<br />
shapes <strong>the</strong> poem.<br />
Poems that evade strict categorization reveal <strong>the</strong> limitations of my<br />
(or any) <strong>the</strong>oretical framework, but <strong>the</strong>y also reveal much about poets’<br />
nuanced approaches to <strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong>. In this same ve<strong>in</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>poetry</strong><br />
left out of this “comprehensive” book reveal much about my strategies,<br />
proclivities, and commitments. The <strong>political</strong> party “big tent” platform<br />
<strong>in</strong>evitably excludes capable participants and constituencies (or takes<br />
<strong>the</strong>m for granted and thus ignores <strong>the</strong>m). My big tent approach similarly<br />
leaves out some forms of <strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong>. I did not <strong>in</strong>clude spoken<br />
word, performance, or slam <strong>poetry</strong>; I have thus omitted poems performed<br />
at vibrant, multicultural, <strong>political</strong> spaces such as El Puerto<br />
Rican Embassy, Nuyorican Poets’ Café, Tía Chu Cha Café Cultural,