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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194 AMERICAN POLITICAL POETRY<br />
xenophobia, repression, dangerous work<strong>in</strong>g conditions, and heartache<br />
for illegals. Soto’s voice is humorous and <strong>political</strong>, even if it ga<strong>in</strong>s part<br />
of its edge from a position of privilege—legal U.S. citizen versus illegal<br />
Mexican immigrants. Humor, <strong>the</strong>n, can be a viable, if occasionally<br />
risky, figure of voice <strong>in</strong> U.S. <strong>poetry</strong>, especially when it is used to comment<br />
on difficult <strong>political</strong> issues such as immigration.<br />
Part Two<br />
I conclude here by return<strong>in</strong>g to <strong>the</strong> overarch<strong>in</strong>g debates that frame this<br />
project <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> preface and <strong>in</strong>troduction. In 1949, when Muriel<br />
Rukeyser wrote that “anyone deal<strong>in</strong>g with <strong>poetry</strong> and <strong>the</strong> love of<br />
<strong>poetry</strong> must deal, <strong>the</strong>n, with <strong>the</strong> hatred of <strong>poetry</strong>, and perhaps even<br />
more with <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>difference” (6), she was engag<strong>in</strong>g a long tradition of<br />
poets who have felt compelled to view <strong>poetry</strong> through <strong>the</strong> lens of its<br />
detractors. In eighth-<strong>century</strong> Ch<strong>in</strong>a, for <strong>in</strong>stance, Tu Fu “brood[ed]<br />
on <strong>the</strong> uselessness of letters,” lament<strong>in</strong>g that “Poetry and<br />
letters / Persist <strong>in</strong> silence and solitude.” What good is <strong>poetry</strong>, he asked,<br />
when his country is “Overrun with war” and citizens view poets with<br />
“contempt”? (cited <strong>in</strong> Rexroth One Hundred 6, 29, 8, 15). Rukeyser’s<br />
suggestion that <strong>the</strong> “economy of <strong>the</strong> nation” and <strong>the</strong> “empire of<br />
bus<strong>in</strong>ess” with<strong>in</strong> it “both <strong>in</strong>clude <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir basic premise <strong>the</strong> concept of<br />
perpetual warfare” (61) still r<strong>in</strong>gs true—if <strong>the</strong> United States exists <strong>in</strong> a<br />
state of “perpetual warfare,” <strong>poetry</strong> will always face contempt and<br />
<strong>in</strong>difference.<br />
Tu Fu articulated better than most <strong>the</strong> stra<strong>in</strong>ed relationship<br />
between <strong>poetry</strong> and a society at perpetual war. His poems were valued<br />
<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> T’ang Dynasty for <strong>the</strong>ir Yi, or Confucian moral <strong>in</strong>struction, as<br />
well as for <strong>the</strong>ir rigorously rule-bound verse. Dur<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> second half<br />
of his life Tu Fu became <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>gly concerned with <strong>the</strong> ravages of<br />
war, and for good reason. In AD 742, <strong>the</strong> Ch<strong>in</strong>ese census numbered<br />
nearly fifty million; <strong>in</strong> AD 764—just twenty-two years later—<strong>the</strong>re<br />
were approximately seventeen million citizens. The capital city of<br />
Chang-an, where Buddhists, Taoists, Christians, Jews, and<br />
Manicheans held counsel toge<strong>the</strong>r, was destroyed <strong>in</strong> a bloody rebellion.<br />
Tu Fu—a descendent of thirteen generations of Confucian<br />
literati and an exile from Chang-an—and his <strong>poetry</strong> show an obsession<br />
with <strong>poetry</strong>’s place <strong>in</strong> war. 5 The twenty-first <strong>century</strong>, <strong>the</strong>n, is<br />
more similar to Tu Fu’s than not. Though <strong>the</strong> wide-scale devastation<br />
now happens <strong>in</strong> places o<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong> United States, those who make<br />
war and those who make <strong>poetry</strong> are still at odds. 6