Suspense, Suspension, and the Sublime in the Poetry of Robert Frost
Suspense, Suspension, and the Sublime in the Poetry of Robert Frost Robert Frost was a sublime poet who struck terror in both himself and his readers. Gifted with a prodigious capacity for what John Keats called “negative capability,” that is, the ability to exist “in uncertainty, Mystery, doubt”—and I would add suspense—“without any irritable reaching after fact and
The Reliable Stream: On A.R. Ammons’s The Complete Poems, V. 1 & 2, W.W. Norton 2017 by T.R. Hummer
This essay introduces new readers of Ammons’ work to the metaphysical courage of his ceaseless, restless poems, while also providing the first comprehensive overview of his Complete Poems from both a biographical and critical perspective. – Chard deNiord The Reliable Stream: On A.R. Ammons’s The Complete Poems, V. 1 & 2, W.W. Norton 2017 Human forms, as well as other
The Heart’s Emissary
I’m pleased to introduce Doug Anderson as this month’s guest essayist. A veteran of the Vietnam War and now peace activist, Doug has written some of the most powerful poems about the Vietnam War, many of which are included in his 1994 prize winning book The Moon Reflected Fire. I’m grateful to Doug for writing his trenchant essay “The Heart’s Emissary”
The Other by Chard DeNiord
THE OTHER In his great book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, William Blake records some of his wisest lines in a section ironically titled “Proverbs of Hell.” Unlike Dante and Milton, Blake believed that “energetic creators” presided in Hell where they created what he called “memorable fancy” in defiance of the “mind-forged manacles” of conventional morality and religion. One
Dredgings by Alexander Dickow
Dredgings Alexander Dickow Why not mix languages, like Theresa Hak Kyung Cha or Jody Pou? French and English are to my eyes situated back to back, recto-verso. They communicate like medieval lovers, by knocking on an impassible wall. The wall becomes at once obstacle and passage, means of communication and its impediment. * Sometimes, asking forgiveness revives anger rather than
Can Poetry Save America by Chard DeNiord
CAN POETRY SAVE AMERICA? Czelaw Milosz, the twentieth century Polish poet and Nobel laureate who became a U.S. citizen in 1970, published a poem titled “Dedication” in 1946 in which he wrote, “What is poetry which does not save Nations or people?/ A Contrivance with official lies.” In acknowledging poetry as an art with the power to save nations, Milosz
