[New-Poetry] Art of the Small Poem. Chapter 5: The Title

[Skip Fox]

In a way Ashbery's "Variations, Calypso and Fugue on a Theme of Ella Wheeler
Wilcox" is much greater than the poem which does, however, go on for several
pages. (Brilliant to have included in his Selected.)

 

-----Original Message-----
From: new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu
[mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] On Behalf Of James Cervantes
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 5:45 PM
To: NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp,Views
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Art of the Small Poem. Chapter 5: The Title

 

Or, in a totally different direction:  titles bigger (in any respect)  than
the poems themselves.

 

- Jim

On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 5:30 PM, Skip Fox <skip at louisiana.edu> wrote:

I think the NY School of poets read Stevens well. Esp. Ashbery. An
interesting thesis might even propose that Stevens' titling (esp. the ones
you mentioned) influenced the NY Poets' titles. The NY School just torqued
them with a wilder humor.

The ones you mentioned are all lushly descriptive (like "Sea Surface" for
the description of the world itself, which also established the bounds of
the poem in one sense) or very "smart" (I'm trying to avoid the term
"intellectual") (as "The Palm" is at mind's end as both world and self, tree
and hand, the actual and fortune's fleshy sign). Beautiful examples.


-----Original Message-----
From: new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu
[mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] On Behalf Of TheOldMole
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 5:19 PM
To: NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp;Views
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Art of the Small Poem. Chapter 5: The Title

Are we allowed to mention Wilshberians? If so, I'll go with Stevens -
"The Palm at the End of the Mind," "Sea Surface Full of Clouds," "The
Comedian as the Letter C."

Skip Fox wrote:
>
> Ted Berrigan wrote that titles should be tiny poems. I love those by
> Berrigan, Ashbery, O'Hara, and Mayer especially, like O'Hara's
> "Meditations in an Emergency," "In Memory of My Feelings," or
> Berrigan's "Tambourine Life" or "So Going Around Cities," or Mayer's
> /The Desires of Mothers to Please Others in Letters/, etc.
>
> Favorite titles anyone?
>
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--
Tad Richards
Read my NY Writing Careers Examiner column today!
http://www.examiner.com/x-2862-NY-Writing-Careers-Examiner

http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
http://opusforty.blogspot.com/

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