Williams, Frost, & Cummings

At Left, Robert Frost.

 


William Carlos Williams

"WCW": September 17, 1883-March 4, 1963. WCW was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, a town near the city of Paterson, which would become a central motif in his poetry. His father was English, his mother Puerto Rican. He was sent to study in Switzerland, Paris, and New York City as a young teenager. In 1902, he began Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania. During this time, he befriended Ezra Pound and Hilda Doolittle (who became leading Modernist Poets), and the painter Charles Demuth; these friendships sparked his growing passion for poetry. After receiving his M.D. in 1906, he interned in NYC and traveled abroad (post-grad studies), specializing in Pediatrics. He began his medical practice back in Rutherford, NJ in 1910 and continued practicing until 1951. Ironically, most of his patiens knew very little about his writings; he was viewed as an old-fashioned doctor. He delivered over 2,000 babies during his practice.

In 1912, he married Florence, "Flossie" Herman. She was his intellectual equal. They lived in Rutherford, NJ. His first book of serious poems, "The Tempers", was published shortly after their marriage. Aside from occasional trips, the couple lived the majority of their lives out in the small town of Rutherford, where they raised their children. On one vacation in 1924, they went to Europe and spent time with writers Ezra Pound and James Joyce. Although always primarily a doctor, WCW had a full literary career and wrote short stories, plays, novels, essays, an autobiography, translations, and of course, poetry.

He spent some weekends in NYC with writers and artists. This grojup, including Marcel Duchamp, Wallace Stevens, Mina Loy, Marianne Moore, etc. became known as "The Others". His early work was influenced by Dadaist and Surrealist principles, and his involvement in this circle of "others" shaped him as a key member of the early Modernist movement in America. He became invovled in the IMAGIST movement in poetry, but he would break from that style and from the styles of Pound and Eliot. WCW disliked the allusions to foreign languages and Classical sources that Pound and Eliot embraced. Williams drew his themes from THE LOCAL. For example, one of his major works, "Paterson", is a poem that is a "modernist epic of place"; it is an account of the history, people and essence of Paterson, NJ. Williams coined the term "NO IDEAS BUT IN THINGS", which is a summary of his poetic method. He felt that poets should try to see the world directly and use language and form in balance with the subject at hand. It is said that he wrote in "plain American which cats and dogs can read"... he wanted to write poetry in a "recognizably American idiom". Much later in his life, WCW would travel the U.S. and give lectures and poetry readings.

WCW was a left-wing, liberal democrat. In 1949, he published a poem "The Pink Church"; it is about the human body, but it was misunderstood as being "pro-communist". This led to his losing consultantship with the Library of Congress and eventually led to his clinical depression. Williams did not believe in using writing for propaganda purposes.

He suffered a heart attack in 1948, and several strokes after that. He died at age 79. 3 days later, a British publisher announced the publication of Williams' poems... getting English recognition for his poetry was always something WCW had wanted.

In 1963, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize (posthumously) for "Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems". The Poetry Society of America continues to honor him by presenting an annual award in his name for the best book of poetry published by a small, non-profit or unidversity press.

"The Red Wheelbarrow" is one of his best known poems, and it is the model example of the Imagist movement's style and principles (which he came to reject). Remember that he rejected European influences in favor of regional dialogues and influences. However, we can see a clearly American subject in the short poem.

"Spring and All" is reflective of the life-death cycle and uses imagery and symbolism to present an idea of procreation and childbirth... subjects with which he was all to familiar.

The breaks in Williams' poems search out a natural pause spoken in the American idiom, that is also reflective of rhythms found withitn jazz and melds with a "Sapphic harmony" (Sappho is a Greek poet).

ROBERT FROST

Although commonly associated with New England, Frost was born in San Francisco. He was born on March 26, 1874 and died on January 29, 1963. His father was a former teacher turned newspaper man, hard drinker, gambler, and harsh disciplinarian who had a passion for politics. Frost lived in CA until age 11, when he moved to Massachusetts to live near his grandparents with his mother and sister. He attended Dartmouth College in 1892 but only stayed for 1 semester. He went to work at various jobs; in 1894, he sold his first poem "My Butterfly" for $15. He married his highschool sweetheard Elinor White in 1895.

Frost and his wife taught school together until 1897; he then entered Harvard and was there for 2 years... he did well, but he was sick, and his wife was pregnant, so he moved home. They lived on a farm in New Hamphshire, bought for them by his grandfather, for 9 years. It was there that he worte many of the poems that would make up his first works. However, he was not a successful farmer and went back to teaching.

In 1912, the family went on a trip to England and settled in Beaconsfield just outside of London. His first book of poetry, "A Boy's Will" was published in 1913. Ezra Pound was the first American to write a good review of Frost's poetry. He returned to New Hamphshire in 1915 to launch a career in writing, teaching, and lecturing. He was an English Professor at Amherst College from 1916-1938 and encouraged his students to "bring the sound of the human voice" to their writing. Beginning in 1921, he spent his summers (for 42 years) teaching at Middlebury College in Ripton, Vermont. His farm near there is maintained as a National Historic Site. He is bureid in Vermont. He received an honorary degree from Harvard, as well as oens from Bates College, Oxford, and Cambridge. He has a middle school and the library of Amherst College named after him.

IN 1961, he recited his work "The Gift Outright" at the inauguration of JFK. He won the Pulitzer Prize 4 times, a great accomplishment for a poet.

E.E. Cummings

October 14, 1894-September 3, 1962. He was an American poet, painter, esssayist, and playwright. He even wrote children's books.  He is known for his unconventional capitalizations and punctutations, but he did not approve of his name being written in lower case letters (e.e. cummings), as it often is.

Unorthodox describes his capitalization, layout, puntuation, and syntax; he uses lower case extensively, has word gaps, line breaks, misplaced or ommitted punctuation marks, interrupted sentences, and purposely uses strange grammar and word order. It is fair to say that Cummings' poems are best understood when "read on the page". While he has an affinithy for avant garde styles and unusual typography, much of his work is "traditional". For example, he writes sonnets and acrostics. His poems often deal with teh themes of love, nature, and the relationship of the individual to the masses and to the world... he often uses satire. During his lifetime, he published over 900 poems and is remembered as one of the preeminent voices of 20th century poetry.

His early influences were the Imagists... and then after visits to Paris, Dada and Surrealism. The DADA movement took place from 1916-1923 and is marked by nonsense and incongruity-- a display of contempt for conventions. Surrealism is a 20th century movement that attempts to express the working s of the subconscous by fantastic imagery and incongrous juxtaposition of subject matter (think Salvador Dali)! http://thepassionatepursuit.com/images/weblog/08-06-21-lexus-salvador-dali.jpg

While he does stick to structure for many of his poems, he does also write in the FREE VERSE, with no recognizable rhyme or scansion. As a painter, he understood the importance of presentation and often used typography to "paint a picture" with his poems. This is why meaning and emotion become clear only when the poem is viewed.... something is lost when read aloud. He also uses intentional misspellings-- some poems feature phonetic spelling sto represent particular dialects. Many of his poems address social issues and satirize society-- but he has an equal bias toward Romanticism (this can be observed in his many poems that celebrate love, sex, and spring). 

 

** You will get your essay assignments on FRIDAY, and we will go over the writing process for the assignment, as well as review a sample essay. Do not forget your POETRY JOURNALS.

You want to begin reading your plays. We are reading 3 plays: "Hamlet", "Death of a Salesman", and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". "Cat" is not in the textbook; please purchase this book ASAP. It is okay to supplement the readings with the film version; however, do NOT rely solely on the film version for an understanding of the play! There are many versions of "Hamlet" out there... I do recommend the film version of "Death of a Salesman" that stars Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich-- it is pretty close to the text. Do NOT watch the film version of "Cat" on your own; we will be watching this in class and comparing it to the written text. "Cat" is a cover-to-cover must read-- you will enjoy it!
You will have homework assignments on each play-- check the website. There aren't many opportunites for homework points left, and some of you desperately need some, so please keep up with the homework and prepare for your quizzes. Have a great break!