Charles Olson

by Von Hallberg, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780674111301
• ISBN10: 0674111303
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1978-12-08
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

Charles Olson is often described as one of the most influential American poets of the last quarter century; some would rather describe him as a cult figure, prophet of the Black Mountain poets and their descendants. Both judgments refer to an influence exerted as much through theories as through poems. Here is an examination of Olson's understanding of poetry that is cogent and a pleasure to read. It provides the framework needed for understanding Olson's work.Mr. von Hallberg shows us the Olson of the 1950s, who tried to bring change through teaching, who wanted poetry to communicate knowledge, as well as the more private poet of the 1960s, turning from history to myth. Olson's ambitions for poetry were based on his sense of cultural politics, and the author studies the relation between Olson's politics and his poetics. He traces too Olson's relation to older poets, especially Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. His book will interest anyone reading contemporary American poetry.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Secretly, the Praises: The Cultural Politics of a New Dealer

Toward a Poetics for the Long Poem: Olson's Relation to Pound and Williams

A Common World: Olson, Whitehead, and the Objectivists

Spaceman-Mapping a Theme of Olson

Deaf to the Lure of Personality: Varieties of Anti-Poetic

From Precept to Paradigm: One Conclusion

Abbreviations

Notes

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.