Blog 1 09/14/2008

Blog 1 (09/14/2008)

As we learn more and more about the Middle generation poets I am struck at the change I see in the writing styles employed. The previous generation of writers, the New Critics, employed a wholly different style of writing then what was to be found in the Middle Generation poets. Allusions to Greek poetry and myths, the use of formal language, as well as the use of exact rhyme are all descriptors of the New Critic writing style. The Middle Generation of poets instead focused the poetry on topic that hit much closer to home. These poets would often write as if they where the speaker of the poem.  Taboo subjects of that era like depression or love affairs, or even mental illness often became the focus of the poetry. The Robert Lowell is a Middle Generation poet that we have covered who could be considered one of the originators of this particular style of poetry.

Lowell’s work was not always of this style he originally was a student of the famous new critic John Crowe Ransom. Luckily for us Lowell felt constrained by the rigid New Critic style. One of his poems that he did write in this style was presented to class. This poem entitled “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket (Part II)” was in my opinion extremely well written. This poem is not nearly as classical as the New Critic poetry of the time. I particularly enjoy the word choice employed throughout the poem with all the references back to the sea.  Lowell didn’t show the rest of the traits of the middle generation until his classic book of poetry “Life Studies” in which he developed a more personnel speaker. One that was as if the person speaking was the actual author of the poem; with this tone in mind he would write about deeply personnel or even taboo subjects.  These poems and the poets who write them are considered to be of the “confessional” strain of middle generation poets.

In class on Friday we worked in groups looking at several of Lowell’s poems. The poem that my group was given is “Fall 1961” from his collection For the Union Dead which he has admitted as a ”volume of poetry written within, from , and about depression.”  What struck me with this poem is the use of color that is employed by Lowell to help set the stage. “of the orange, bland, ambassadorial face of the moon on the grandfather clock.” Color is used again when Lowell describes the orange and black orioles nest. As a group we decided that the nest was a metaphor for the safety that can be found in the simple act of waiting for something to happen. In this case it was the days spent waiting for nuclear war to explode over the Cuban missile crisis. Another line that I think strikes anyone who reads this poem references back to “We are like a lot of wild spiders crying together, but without tears.” Such powerful words that I believe he borrowed from his daughter or some such thing. Now I wasn’t positive on the meaning behind wild spiders that cry but without tears but it certainly sounded cool.