Quotation and Modern American Poetry: "Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads"In this volume Elizabeth Gregory addresses a number of key issues surrounding the formation of the American poetic canon. Taking as her primary examples T. S. Eliot's Waste Land, William Carlos Williams' Paterson, and selected poems by Marianne Moore, she examines the ways in which modern American writers struggled with questions of literary authority and cultural identity in relation to pre-existing European models. Gregory focuses on these issues through analysis of the use of quotation in modern and postmodern literature, a practice that was strikingly divergent from the accepted use of literary allusion. Her introduction traces a history of quotation as it has been practiced in literature from classical to modern times. She then focuses on the texts of Eliot, Williams, and Moore--three central figures of American modernism whose work the author believes represents a spectrum of responses to the established European model of poetical discourse. Gregory's selection of Moore also allows her to deal with feminist concerns as they emerge in the more general modernist dialogue. How was a female writer to make use of a literary canon that traditionally excluded female participation? "The implications of Gregory's argument . . . will surely be of especial interest to feminist scholars of American poetry."--Lois Parkinson Zamora, University of Houston. |
From inside the book
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Page 6
... beginning God created the heaven and the earth , " John has " In the beginning was the Word . " ) 8 At a literal level John's restate- ment corrects Genesis , arguing semantics , in such a way as to stress the tex- tuality of the Old ...
... beginning God created the heaven and the earth , " John has " In the beginning was the Word . " ) 8 At a literal level John's restate- ment corrects Genesis , arguing semantics , in such a way as to stress the tex- tuality of the Old ...
Page 14
... beginning . " To accommodate both needs , they redirect the act of usurpation , and usurp the usurpers of the sacred : " The aù- thority both poets felt they had to displace was the 14 / Quotation and Modern American Poetry.
... beginning . " To accommodate both needs , they redirect the act of usurpation , and usurp the usurpers of the sacred : " The aù- thority both poets felt they had to displace was the 14 / Quotation and Modern American Poetry.
Page 15
... beginning . " Milton cites the same line John does , and , like John , he transforms the line as he re - employs it . By setting his borrowing in line 9 rather than line 1 , Milton at once acknowledges the importance of these words and ...
... beginning . " Milton cites the same line John does , and , like John , he transforms the line as he re - employs it . By setting his borrowing in line 9 rather than line 1 , Milton at once acknowledges the importance of these words and ...
Page 18
... beginning of the process , and so lies closer to the origin of romantic originality per se . A second and related source of the anxiety betrayed in these quotations springs from the affront to the notion of the sacred that the doctrine ...
... beginning of the process , and so lies closer to the origin of romantic originality per se . A second and related source of the anxiety betrayed in these quotations springs from the affront to the notion of the sacred that the doctrine ...
Page 20
... beginnings of the breakdown of the colonial system , the collapse of morale attendant on World War I , the advances of both workers ' and women's movements , the psychoanalytic attenuation of the no- tion of the autonomous self , and ...
... beginnings of the breakdown of the colonial system , the collapse of morale attendant on World War I , the advances of both workers ' and women's movements , the psychoanalytic attenuation of the no- tion of the autonomous self , and ...
Contents
1 | |
25 | |
William Carlos Williamss Paterson | 73 |
Marianne Moores Poetry of Quotation | 129 |
Notes | 187 |
Bibliography | 221 |
Index | 231 |
Other editions - View all
Quotation and Modern American Poetry: Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads Elizabeth Gregory No preview available - 1996 |
Quotation and Modern American Poetry: Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads Elizabeth Gregory No preview available - 1996 |
Common terms and phrases
acknowledge allusions American appear argues argument associated attempt authority beginning borrowing called cited claims clear close comes complexity concern continues critics culture death demonstrated describes desire direct discussion earlier echoes effect Eliot employs evidence example fact fall father female feminine figures follows further gender gives hierarchy influence instance involves issues kind language less letters lines literary loss male Marianne Moore marks means Milton modernist Moore's mother move notes offers once operate originality particular past Paterson pattern phrase play poem poem's poet poetic poetry position possibility Pound present Press question quotation quotes readers reference relation represents role romantic secondary seems sense serves silence sources speak specifically standard story structure suggests texts things tion tradition transformation understanding University voice Waste Land William Carlos Williams Williams's woman women writing York
Popular passages
Page 43 - I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
Page 15 - And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Page 219 - So saying, her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd, she eat: Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe, That all was lost.
Page 191 - A little onward lend thy guiding hand To these dark steps, a little further on; For yonder bank hath choice of sun or shade; There I am wont to sit, when any chance Relieves me from my task of servile toil, Daily in the common prison else enjoin'd me, Where I, a prisoner chain'd, scarce freely draw The air imprison'd also, close and damp, Unwholesome draught.
Page 35 - What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images...
Page 5 - Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in dang-er of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment...
Page 190 - And Cush begat Nimrod : he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord : wherefore it is said, "Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.
Page 48 - PHLEBAS the Phoenician, a fortnight dead, Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell And the profit and loss. A current under sea Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell He passed the stages of his age and youth Entering the whirlpool.
Page 200 - The invisible world, doth greatness make abode, There harbours; whether we be young or old, Our destiny, our being's heart and home, Is with infinitude, and only there ; With hope it is, hope that can never die, Effort, and expectation, and desire, And something evermore about to be.
Page 37 - You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; "They called me the hyacinth girl." — Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. Oed