CONTEMPORARY POETRY


Poetry of modernists continued to dominate literary scene into the 1940s. The early 1950s can be
viewed as the era of traditional poets. This period was quite conservative, not only in poetry, and
is sometimes referred to as a „sleeping decade“. Many poets returned to traditional poetic forms,
often using rhymes and traditional metrical patterns.


During the late 50s and the 60s American poetry changed radically. The important civil rights
movements (movements advocating black power, women´s liberation, and gay rights) had supporters
among poets.

The new trends in poetry that apperead in this period can be roughly divided into 3 schools:

1) Beat Generation: the Beat poets emergen in the late 50s, and many of them migrated to San
Francisco. In

     1955, Allen Ginsberg read his poem Howl during a public reading in San Francisco, and this
public reading

     was an inauguration of the beat generation. Howl became a manifesto of the Beats. Beat writers
have included

     Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac (fiction writer), William Burroughs (fiction
writer),

     Lawrence Ferlinghetti (important not only as a poet, but also as an editor and publisher. In
1956 he

     published Ginsberg´s Howl, after which he was accused of obscenity and arrested. The trial
followed,

     Ferlinghetti was released, and the trial drew national attention to the Beat movement). Their
unconventional

     work and life-style reflected their hostile attitude to contemporary society. They tried to
find alternatives to

     life in a standardized and mechanical society. Beat poetry was an oral event, it was
repetitive, and immensely

     effective in readings.

2) Confessional poets: they brought into poetry emotions and subjects that were not treated before:
suicidal

     tendences, murderous hatred, incest, madness. They stressed the authenticity of experience,
even if this

     experience was horrible or disgusting. Their poems are highly autobiographical. The power of
their poetry

     comes from the disclosure of the selves and from the power of their emotions. Robert Lowell,
Sylvia Plath

     (Ariel, volume of poetry), Anne Sexton

4) New York poets: their poetry was urban, cool, nonreligious, witty and sophisticated. They
combined

     elements from high and low culture. New York City is the fine arts center of America and the
birthplace of

     Abstact Expressionism. New York poets were inspired by the work of Abstract Expressionist
painters. Most

     of the poets worked as art reviewers or museum curators, or they collaborated with painters.
Because of their

     feeling for abstract art, which distrust figurative shapes and obvious meanings, their work is
often difficult to

     understand. Chief representatives: Frank O´Hara, John Ashberry


Beginning with the 1960s, women poets and poets of various ethnic groups gained access to presses
and publication.

Women poets: much of poetry written by women in the 60s and 70s was feminist and political. Many of
the

    women poets were social activists, fighting for women´s rights, including the rights of
lesbians. They opened

    poetry to explorations of sexuality, the pleasures of creative life, and they made such poetry
popular. Chief

    figures: Adrienne Rich, Robin Morgan, Marge Piercy

Hispanic poets (Chicano poets): The most visible among Spanish American poets are so-calle Mexican-

    Americans, known as Chicano. Chicano poetry stresses traditional values of the Mexican
community and

    deals with the discrimination it has met with among whites. Sometimes the poets blend Spanish
and English

    words in a poetic fusion. Their poetry is much influenced by oral tradition and is very
powerful when read

    aloud. Much Chicano poetry is highly personal, dealing with feelings and focusing on family or
members of

    the community. Lorna Dee Cervantes, Gary Soto


Recent trends in American poetry :

language poets: they explore language to reveal its potential for ambiguity and fragmentation. The
are ironic,

    postmodern, they reject „metanarratives“: ideologies, dogmas, conventions. They oppose all
fixed forms,

    hierarchies, categories of genre. Instead, they propose open forms, multicultural texts.
Language poems often

    resist interpretation. Bruce Andrews, Charles Bernstein, Susan Howe

performance-oriented poetry: Laurie Anderson, for example, mixes several media. She uses film,
music,

    choreography, and space-age technology

sound poetry: emphacizes the voice and instruments

visual or concrete poetry: makes a visual statement using various placement and typography



Sources:

Lauter, Paul (ed.). The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Volume 2. Lexington: D. C. Heath
and Company, 1994

HOOVER, P. (ed.). Postmodern American Poetry. A Norton Anthology.  NY: W. W. Norton and Company,
1994