American Literature 1880-1940

Revisiting the Authors: Stein

2004-12-09T22:46:00.000-08:00

When we were reading Stein, I had a difficult time connecting with the idea that she had written her work for people to enjoy as they saw fit. At first, I couldn’t help but feel that her language use was an attempt to create a new, elevated form, where the meaning was buried in layers of form. Near the end of our discussion, however, I thought that it was easier to discern that her experimentation came from an enjoyment of words: their sounds, their combinations, and the many way that they create meanings. In my research on Mina Loy, I ran across a description of Gertrude Stein and her brother in Italy: Gertrude, walking barefoot, buying tourist trinkets and art objects alike, not caring whether they were “good,” just paying attention to what they meant to her. Mina wrote: “I remember she was the first one- of all those sophisticated, cultured people I had grown accustomed to- who made me realize how nothing is anything more than it is to oneself.” (from Carolyn Burke’s Becoming Modern). This view of Stein was rather refreshing. I think that she would encourage us to read her work if we enjoyed it, but she not want us to force enjoyment out of it, because that would defeat the purpose of it’s creation.

Revisiting the Authors: Loy

2004-12-07T16:28:00.000-08:00

I’m doing my final project on Loy, so I’ve been re-reading her works for the last bit of the semester. What I find interesting is that that her works are so little read. She was highly respected by her contemporaries in the tens and twenties. She was not as prolific as some of the other poets and was published in book form less often, which probably contributes to her relative obscurity. Loy was also interested and talented in other art forms. She trained as a painter, in the twenties started a lampshade business, and in the forties and fifties created sculpture. At the end of her life she told an interviewer that she ‘never was a poet.’ This is such an enigmatic statement because clearly, she wrote poems. I wonder how she meant that she had never been a poet. Perhaps she felt that all forms of her creativity fit under the umbrella of artist; sometimes her thoughts were expressed as paintings, sometimes as sculptures, and sometimes as poems. It’s a very free way of looking at her career and also very true to the ideas of modernism, i.e. breaking down boundaries, creating new forms, and subverting tradition.

Revisiting the Authors: Williams

2004-12-03T21:54:00.000-08:00

I found Williams to be the most accessible poet that we read. This is perhaps because his subject matter was so often the everyday interactions of people written in a straightforward manner. With Williams, I felt that there was no filter, I was reading his poem and envisioning the scene in my mind in the way that he had intended. There’s less mystery, which perhaps makes it less exciting, but there is something about Williams’ poetry that continues to make him one of people’s favorite American poets.

I found the following poem while I was poking around on the internet for information about Modernist poets. I thought it was a funny kind of ode to Williams, poking fun while at the same time enjoying his crisp and simple imagery. Well, here’s my fun poem for everyone to read.

first the original:

This Is Just to Say
by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams
by Kenneth Koch

I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.
I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do
and its wooden beams were so inviting.

We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.

I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby
and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.

Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

Zukosky Style Sonnet

2004-11-13T14:00:00.000-08:00

When I first read through "A-7" I didn't really understand what Zukofsky was doing. As I read through it again, however, I realized he was making a play on the word horse and it's two different meanings. So I used the first fourteen lines as a model for my sonnet. I like writing the "in the style of. . ." pieces because it forces me to examine the writers' techniques. I have to understand what their doing before I can attempt to write in the same style. Mine's a little silly, but I enjoyed writing it.

Train: did you see it pass? steam flowing? Needs

Should make it, out of steam, out of iron, but

It has no steam, so there is no iron, beads

From needs instead; from me to she no avenue shut..

For it has no windows, no gleaming side,

White pink, round infant pearls stream from edges,

“Family” is what blush on cheeks doesn’t hide;

That invites everyone, even strangers down from ledges;

You’re invited, and she’s invited, no judgments

are invited. No! Not thought of, just bliss

Final thoughts, objections oppressed, then kiss

is witnessed, noses snorted; hands wave as train goes

Rushing by, flying down the aisle, veil taking flight

In a puff of tulle- and me? Am the minister, in much delight.

Gertrude Stein

2004-11-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed watching the film about Gertrude Steins Four Saints in Three Acts. I think that Virgil Thompson heard the musical quality in Stein’s writing and saw possibilities there. In the same way that hearing Stein speak her own words added meaning to what we had been reading, hearing the opera also added meaning. When we hear the words spoken the way that Stein intended, we get closer to hearing them the way that they originated in her head. Stein, Thompson, and the performers all made comments along the lines of how their enjoyment of the work outweighed their ability/inability to understand the words.

I think that the main reason we as readers find Stein to be so frustrating is that we are analyzing her work for something that isn’t there. As an English major, I read Stein in Critical Thinking mode, looking for structural elements and stylistic factors that would mark it as Literature. Perhaps this is the wrong way to go about it. Maybe Stein’s work isn’t really Literature, but something else entirely. I don’t know what exactly, but she’s carved a new category for herself, a kind of Word Art.

Sleeping Beauty, Gertrude Stein Style

2004-10-16T22:45:00.000-07:00

Sleeping Beauty made it very hard for people to protect her

The fairy people, who were good, and her friends, tried very hard to make her beautiful, and kind, and charming, for she was not an ordinary girl. The three fairies raised the tiny, rowdy, beautiful royal girl until she had grown into a wonderful, long haired, nature loving, royal woman.

The royal little girl turned woman, who was not an ordinary girl, had recently fallen in love with a suitable young man, who was also royal, and loved the young woman as well. They met in the park in the sun under a grey sky, with a slight breeze, and the smell of pine cones burning.

The three fairies had never fallen in love with a suitable young man and smelled burnt pinecones, but they loved their Sleeping Beauty.

“I am not an ordinary girl. I can not fall in love with an ordinary man”

The three fairies, who were nice, and her guardians, were always careful. Her old, strict, worried, enemy-making father had angered a witch who wished to put the kingdom to sleep. She, the tall, large dark eyed, flowing haired, sharp nailed, staff wielding witch, would lure the child, Sleeping Beauty, and give her the name by which everyone would call her.

The three fairies were always locking doors. “Sleeping Beauty, you are not an ordinary girl, please stay with us, the fairies, who are kind hearted and your allies”

Sleeping Beauty, who was not entirely good, would not be confined and was tempted by the magical, fine-looking, mysterious sorceress. Why would a royal girl, who had the love of fairies and suitable men and throngs in kingdoms stray from the path.

Sleeping Beauty, who was loving and kind, but sometimes gave trust where trust should be kept to oneself followed the evil, handsome, fierce sorceress through twisted trees, dark alleys, up chipped stairs, and past empty rooms.

The sorceress, who kept grudges, and was often easily offended, had not been invited to Sleeping Beauty’s long ago baptism. She had been angry and had crashed the party. “She is no ordinary child. She will bring your downfall.”

The sorceress, who could not forgive, but did not necessarily hate Sleeping Beauty, held out a needle and christened her.

The sorceress watched Sleeping Beauty fall to the ground: long, sun filled, kind hearted hair falling in waves; long suffering, lonely, quiet kingdom falling into deep sleep, unlikely to wake.

The sorceress, who was actually very sad, and will soon die anyway, felt a kind of relief. “She is no ordinary girl, only love’s first kiss can wake her and those who love her.”

The suitable young man, who was actually a prince, who loved Sleeping Beauty, searched everywhere for the woman with long pine smelling gray lit hair and three tiny luminous friends. How did he find where she lay.

The suitable young man, who had climbed many stairs and gotten very dirty, found the woman named Sleeping Beauty and kissed her without knowing why he did it.

The suitable young man, who may be a king some day, woke the sleeping beauty, the sleeping father, the sleeping peasants.

Sleeping Beauty did not have very interesting dreams but she did enjoy her life.

Translation Experiment brainstorm

2004-10-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

I wanted to incorporate the technical characteristics of both Loy and Williams’ work into the second experiment. Edna St. Vincent Millat came up in class, so I thought I might choose one of her poems to translate into a Loy poem and a Williams poem. I think the translation exercise is a good way to examine the kinds of things that the modernists are doing in their writing.

Characteristics of Loy

Outlandish vocabulary

Uses of blank spaces

Startling imagery (gross factor)

Topics: he moon, being a woman, the creative

process

Alliteration

Light imagery

Creates new words

Characteristics of Williams

condensed images

simplicity

ambiguous attitude toward women

Topics: doctors, the poor, women

short lines

plays with line length

rarely rhymes

creates new punctuation

Witch-Wife by Edna St Vincent Millay

She is neither pink nor pale,

        And she never will be all mine;

She learned her hands in a fairy-tale,

        And her mouth on a valentine.

She has more hair than she needs;

        In the sun `tis a woe to me!

And her voice is a string of coloured beads,

        Or steps leading into the sea.

She loves me all that she can,

        And her ways to my ways resign;

But she was not made for any man,

        And she never will be all mine.

Characteristics of this Poem

abab rhyme

4 line stanzas

Topic: idealized woman, loss

Speaker: maybe male

Repetition of lines

 ‘pretty’ images

Thoughts for translation into Loy

Make speaker female

Ditch ‘pretty’ imagery,

replace with incongruent language

Exchange common words for

extravagant words

add elements of irony

Thoughts for translation into Williams

keep male speaker

No rhyme

eliminate extra words like and, or, the

Mix up structure,

add new line breaks, punctuation

add elements of voyeurism

“Apology of Genius”

2004-10-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

There are interesting word choices in this poem, starting with the title: Apology of Genius. Not ‘for,’ not ‘by,’ but ‘of’ Genius. At first I was struck by the arrogance of the first line: “Ostracized as we are with God.” The small words here are the pivotal ones, the ones that draw my attention: ‘With’ God as opposed to ‘by’ God. This Genius is on the same plane as God, as majestic and wonderful as God. I thought maybe that Loy was referring to herself or to poets in general. But as I re-read the rest of the poem a couple of times, I came to decide that the poem isn’t expressing arrogance so much as ‘otherness.’ It’s almost as if genius is separate from humanity, and this is its apology to humanity. The lines in the sixth stanza seem to bear this out: “You may give birth to us / or marry us / the chances of your flesh /are not our destiny –.” Humans and genius have separate fates. It’s almost like people are vessels for the creative ‘magical powers’ that descend from the heavens. Loy also writes that the will of Genius is ‘beyond your laws,’ again pointing to the otherness of it. I’ve been thinking of using this poem for the next experiment, maybe doing a translation exercise like we did between Lowell and Loy, only using William Carlos Williams and Loy. It deserves further thought.

Voyeuristic elements

2004-10-02T13:45:00.000-07:00

Our discussion of this poem and its voyeuristic elements got me thinking about the position of the world’s commentator’s. Writers, painters, photographers, reporters, etc make their living or provide enlightenment by watching and observing people live their lives. Normally this seems like a noble pursuit, but at the same time it has disturbing qualities.

In “To a Poor Old Woman,” we as readers watch this woman eat the plums, but it doesn’t feel wrong in any way. In the poem, “The Young Housewife,” Williams again watches the subject, but this time its voyeuristic quality is disturbing. The speaker speaks as if he knows the housewife intimately- has knowledge of her walking her house in her nightie. He also compares her to a leaf and then uses the image of his car rolling over leaves. His watching is a kind of power, he watches her, uses her image in a poem, make judgments about her, and she doesn’t have any control over that.

I was reminded of when I was riding in bus in a city and I saw a man with a camera phone take a picture of a homeless man rooting through a garbage can. I was appalled. What’s the difference between him taking that photo and a professional photojournalist taking the photo, or between him taking the photo and Williams’ writing a poem about it?

The difference to me, was the casualness of his actions and the perceived purpose of his photo. I could be wrong, but I don’t think that he was doing research on the homeless, or planning a photo essay about the hardships of city life.

In both Williams’ poems the speaker and the reader are watching someone, but the watching has a very different feel. In “The Young Housewife,” the watching feels ‘wrong’ or dangerous, and I think a lot of that has to do with language use. He describes the housewife in intimate and knowing terms, crosses a line between observing and intruding on her personal space. In the same way, the cameraphone man was appalling because of his use of form. By using the cameraphone, he trivialized the homeless man’s struggle to survive and assumed that his own wealth gave him the right to invade another man’s personal space.

Williams’ Prose Passages/ Multiple Poems with similar titles

2004-10-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

I had an older addition without the prose passages and I was interested to note that the poems in my book were given titles, whereas those in the other book didn’t have titles. I was also intrigued by Williams’ practice of revising poems and then reprinting them later with the same title. When a reader goes to look for a specific poem by title they could have a very difficult time. The poem they find could be the old one or a revised one, or one that has been catalogued by first line rather than the initial title it was published under. It’s very confusing! The confusion, although sometimes frustrating certainly gives readers a clear window on William’s poetic process. We can see the poems in all kinds of stages and contexts. Williams’ doesn’t seem to mind that readers see all the ‘messiness’ of his creative process.

Introduction to Anna Bloom's Lit Journal

2004-09-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

The following posts on this webpage will be on the subject of early 20th century Modernist literature. My initial reason for taking the class was because I feel like it will fill in a hole in my American Literature knowledge. So far I am enjoying the poetry that we have read. I like William Carlos Williams the most, probably because he is the poet I have had the most experience with and I feel more confident reading his work. I'm most concerned about discussing Gertrude Stein because I have zero experience with her work and the poems in the first days handout were pretty intimidating. I notice we don't discuss her work until mid October, so hopefully my brain we'll be all warmed up by then!

William Carlos Williams: Love Song(s)

2004-09-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

“A Love Song: First Version, 1915” and “Love Song”: Compare and Contrast

My initial reaction to reading these two poems was that I liked the first version more. The first version is slower moving and more reflective. There are questions, and more lines that end with a dash. Punctuation comes at more frequent intervals: “When shall we meet?/Yet—/ I lie here thinking of you.” (lines 3-5). It’s also broken up into 6 stanzas instead of the 3 present in the final version. The reader is forced to slow down and consider each stanza by itself and then how that stanza fits into the larger poem. The speaker of the poem is more pleading, more desperate in the 1915 version: “When we shall we meet?” “See me!” (lines 2, 24).

The purpose of the second version of “Love Song” could be to counteract the very things I enjoy about the first one. The poem is shorter and has fewer pauses, so the message is condensed. It also has a very clear progression. It begins with the speaker thinking of ‘you,’ then moves into how his thoughts color the world, and ends with “you far off.” The colors in the second version pop off the page, they’re not quite as tucked away as in the first version.

I feel like I understand the first version more readily, because Williams has given the reader more to work with. The background materials about Modernism that we’ve discussed talk a lot about creating works that are new, provocative, and challenging. By looking at the two versions of “Love Song” it’s possible to see that Williams is trying to accomplish these things. I like “Love Song First Version, 1915” perhaps because it is more traditional. There are more accessible images and moods. Williams writes in this version: “My hair is dripping with nectar—/ starlings carry it/ On their black wings” (lines 25-27). Feelings of love which are associated with sky, birds, and flight commonly appear in poetic work. In the second version, the more unusual imagery: “horned branches,” “honey-thick stain,” are more prominently displayed. Readers are forced to read and consider these phrases because the poem is more condensed; Williams does not want the reader to gloss over his challenging phrases and enjoy only the more conventional language.