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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12 AMERICAN POLITICAL POETRY<br />
that departs fully from any notion of a poem as a facilitator of action<br />
(“Leap<strong>in</strong>g” 134). Poems, <strong>the</strong>n, can be part of (or symbolic of) a<br />
culture’s consciousness shift. Similarly, Robert Duncan draws from<br />
William Blake’s ideas about <strong>poetry</strong> and politics as he contends that<br />
great <strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong> is “visionary” <strong>in</strong> its presentation of events as<br />
“part of larger and more universal paradigms.” He positions <strong>poetry</strong><br />
as an imag<strong>in</strong>ative endeavor that must not “become a mouthpiece for<br />
a righteous cause” or offer cures for <strong>political</strong> issues (cited <strong>in</strong> Perloff<br />
“Poetry <strong>in</strong> Time” 209). Duncan would likely discount Cardenal’s<br />
“tactical” poems, as <strong>the</strong> term has been used by Thomas McGrath, as<br />
poems, s<strong>in</strong>ce <strong>the</strong>y stand <strong>in</strong> certa<strong>in</strong> opposition to both of his<br />
imperatives. Duncan’s position reveals more about his preference for<br />
what McGrath calls “strategic” poems, which are poems that work to<br />
expand consciousness, ra<strong>the</strong>r than tactical poems, which often speak<br />
for a cause and diagnose <strong>political</strong> problems (McGrath 28–29).<br />
A fur<strong>the</strong>r conundrum <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> discourse surround<strong>in</strong>g contemporary<br />
<strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong> is <strong>the</strong> multitude of signifiers for <strong>the</strong> <strong>political</strong> poem.<br />
Mary K. DeShazer’s study of women’s “resistance” <strong>poetry</strong>,<br />
Forché’s anthology of “witness” <strong>poetry</strong>, Hirsch’s discussion of<br />
“transpersonal” <strong>poetry</strong>, McGrath’s “tactical” (context-specific poems)<br />
and “strategic” <strong>political</strong> poems, and John Gery’s study of contemporary<br />
<strong>poetry</strong>’s embeddedness <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> nuclear age as a “discourse of survival,”<br />
amongst o<strong>the</strong>rs, provide thorny departure po<strong>in</strong>ts for any study of<br />
<strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong>. When <strong>the</strong>se signifiers are viewed <strong>in</strong> conjunction with<br />
<strong>the</strong> prevail<strong>in</strong>g disregard for polemical <strong>poetry</strong>, <strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong> occupies<br />
an overdeterm<strong>in</strong>ed but murkily def<strong>in</strong>ed place <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> criticism. Ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />
than open up a platform of debate, <strong>the</strong>se signifiers for <strong>political</strong>ly and<br />
socially engaged <strong>poetry</strong> often reduce it to one of two spaces—active<br />
opposition or consciousness rais<strong>in</strong>g, a problematic that dovetails with<br />
<strong>the</strong> illusory ei<strong>the</strong>r/or proposition of McGrath’s dualistic “strategic”<br />
and “tactical” <strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong>. Bly’s <strong>in</strong>sistence that <strong>the</strong> <strong>political</strong> poem<br />
“comes out of <strong>the</strong> deepest privacy” (“Leap<strong>in</strong>g” 132), which collapses<br />
what is often seen as a divide between <strong>the</strong> personal poem and <strong>the</strong><br />
<strong>political</strong> poem, is much different from Adrienne Rich’s proclamation<br />
that “<strong>the</strong> personal is <strong>political</strong>.” 8 Aga<strong>in</strong>, <strong>the</strong>se assumptions limit <strong>the</strong><br />
range of <strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong> to ei<strong>the</strong>r an autonomous realm of assertion or<br />
one of contestation. In <strong>the</strong> chapters that follow, I discuss poems that<br />
could be understood as assertive, contestatory, and various<br />
comb<strong>in</strong>ations <strong>the</strong>reof. I hope that my discussions will help move us<br />
away from this dichotomy toward an understand<strong>in</strong>g of <strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong><br />
as a collection of multiple rhetorical strategies, with unique, but overlapp<strong>in</strong>g<br />
figures of voice.