Lyric Encounters: Essays on American Poetry From Lazarus and Frost to Ortiz Cofer and Alexie

236 Pages·2013·0.89 MB·English

by  Daniel Morris

Lyric Encounters

Lyric Encounters
Essays on American Poetry
from Lazarus and Frost to
Ortiz Cofer and Alexie
Daniel Morris
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
175 Fifth Avenue 50 Bedford Square
New York London
NY 10010 WC1B 3DP
USA UK
www.bloomsbury.com
First published 2013
© Daniel Morris, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on
or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be
accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.
ISBN: 978-1-4411-5994-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Morris, Daniel, 1962-
Lyric encounters : essays on American poetry from Lazarus and Frost to
Ortiz Cofer and Alexie / by Daniel Morris.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-9442-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4411-5156-8
(pbk. : alk. paper) 1. American poetry–20th century–History and criticism.
2. Lyric poetry–History and criticism. I. Title.
PS323.5.M66 2013
811'.509--dc23
2012049675
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
1 Introduction 1
2 “Go Home and Write a Page Tonight”: Subversive
Irony and Resistant Reading in Langston Hughes’s
“Theme for English B” 13
3 The Erotics of Close Reading: Williams, Demuth,
and “The Crimson Cyclamen” 27
4 Queering Time: Allen Ginsberg, “America,” and
the Cold War 41
5 Active and Passive Citizenship in Emma Lazarus’s
“The New Colossus” and Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The
Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica” 67
6 Queer Desire as Mediated through the Horn and
the Pen: Elegy as Love Letter or Love Letter as
Elegy in Michael S. Harper’s “Dear John, Dear
Coltrane” 81
7 Frank Bidart’s Voice and the Erasure of Jewish
Difference in “Ellen West” 99
vi CONTENTS
8 Narrative and Survival in The Delicacy and
Strength of Lace 133
9 Before and After the Fall: Tribalism, Individualism,
and Multicultural Poetics in Sherman Alexie 155
10 Coda: “Mending Wall” and Tikkun Olam: The
Case for the Humanities Classroom 201
Bibliography 207
Index 219
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to the many persons who have discussed aspects of
this book with me. I am sure I will not remember everybody. I
thank Purdue colleagues: Marlo David, Wendy Flory, Christian
Knoeller, Matthew Kroll, Walter Moore, Bill Mullen, Venetria
Patton, Nancy Peterson, Donald Platt, Amy Pommerening, Charles
Ross, Jimmy Saunders, Mike Yetman. At conferences and through
correspondences: David Epstein, Tom Fink, Norman Finkelstein,
Eugene Goodheart, Allen Grossman, Trudier Harris, Michael
Heller, Glen MacLeod, R. Baxter Miller, Stephen Paul Miller,
Ranen Omer-Sherman, Donald E. Pease, Margaret Scanlan, Daniel
R. Schwarz, Siobhan Somerville. A very special thank you to Ethan
Goffman. Ethan has read, commented upon, and edited my work
– on this project and others – for several years. His knowledge
of literature, politics, and culture is extensive. He pushes me to
refine my thoughts and do my best work. Bloomsbury has been
a fabulous publisher. I am grateful to Susan Dunsmore, Ally Jane
Grossan, Haaris Naqvi, Kim Storry. Purdue has offered significant
financial and staff support. I thank Liberal Arts Dean Irwin Weiser,
Jewish Studies director Daniel Frank, and English department
Head Nancy Peterson for providing research support. I thank
Sheila Featherstone and Erica Cox of the English department staff
for their support. Purdue libraries have provided great access to
materials, including through the Interlibrary Loan service. My
greatest thank you goes to my family. I am so very grateful to my
wife Joy and children Isaac, Aaron, and Hannah. You make every
day special.
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Some of the chapters in this book originally appeared in somewhat
different form in the following journals. I thank the editors and
referees for these journals. Their efforts have improved the current
versions.
“The Erotics of Close Reading: Williams, Demuth, and ‘The
Crimson Cyclamen’.” William Carlos Williams Review 27. 1 (2007
Spring): 57–68.
“‘The Word Gets Around’: Silko’s Theory of Narrative Survival in
The Delicacy and Strength of Lace.” Western American Literature
34. 1 (1999 Spring): 48–67.
“‘Go Home and Write a Page Tonight’: Subversive Irony and
Resistant Reading in “Theme for English B.” The Langston
Hughes Review. Volume 24–25. Winter/Fall 2010/2011: 20–30.
“‘Mending Wall’: The Case for the Humanities Classroom.”
Tikkun 26(1): 2011. Online exclusive.
“Active and Passive Citizenship in Emma Lazarus’s ‘The New
Colossus’ and Judith Ortiz Cofer’s ‘The Latin Deli: An Ars
Poetica.’” Papers on Language and Literature. 287–301. Volume
48, Number 3, Summer 2012.
“On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City” from First Indian
on the Moon (c) 1993 by Sherman Alexie. Reprinted by permission
of Hanging Loose Press.
“Dear John, Dear Coltrane” from Songlines in Michaeltree:
New and Collected Poems by Michael S. Harper. Reprinted by
permission of the University of Illinois Press.
“Ellen West” from In The Western Night: Collected Poems
1965–1990 by Frank Bidart. Copyright © 1990 by Frank Bidart.
Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. and
Carcanet Press Limited.
“Theme for English B” from The Collected Poems of Langston
Hughes by Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad with
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
David Roessel, Associate Editor, copyright © 1994 by the Estate
of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf,
a division of Random House, Inc. Any third party use of this
material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested
parties must apply directly to Random House, Inc. for permission.
“The Crimson Cyclamen” from The Collected Poems of William
Carlos Williams, Vol. 1: 1909–1939. Copyright by New Directions
Publishing Corporation. Copyright © 1982, 1986 by William Eric
Williams and Paul H. Williams.
“The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica” by Judith Ortiz Cofer. Reprinted
by permission of the University of Houston and Arte Publico Press.
“America” from Collected Poems 1947-1980 by Allen Ginsberg.
Copyright (c) 1956, 1959 by Allen Ginsberg. Reprinted by
Permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
For additional territory. The Estate of Allen Ginsberg, as successor
in interest to the rights of Allen Ginsberg, c/o The Wylie Agency,
Inc., 250 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10107.