Abstract
Starting with the Modernist writers of the early twentieth century, Robert Vas Dias traces the development of the American prose poem and its subsequent transatlantic journey to Britain in the late 1950s and 1960s. He examines its surreal, reiterative, open-ended, non-linear and dissociative structure which, together with its emphasis on the quotidian, led to the linguistically innovative prose poetry of the counter-cultural movement of the 1960s. The position of writers such as Beckett, Borges, Kafka and the Latin American magical realists is discussed in relation to contemporary prose poetry, as well as the New American Poetry and the Beat Generation’s contribution to the practice of British writers. Robert Vas Dias concludes by examining the prose poetry of several significant ‘older generation’ and contemporary British writers.
Un peu de ciel bleuit au versant de nos ongles.
St.-John Perse.
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Notes
- 1.
An important precursor, the Nobel Prizewinner St.-John Perse (1887–1975), wrote the prose-poem work Éloges [Praises] in French in 1911; it was translated into English by Eugène Jolas in 1927 but didn’t attain wider recognition in English until Louise Varèse’s translation (New York: Norton, 1944); Bollingen Series LV (New York: Pantheon, 1956). Louise Norton, as she then was, and her husband Allan, edited the little magazine Rogue, published in New York from March to September 1915; it contained the work of Mina Loy , q.v., among others.
- 2.
Gertrude Stein , Poetics of the New American Poetry, ed. Donald M. Allen and Warren Tallman (New York: Grove, 1973), 104.
- 3.
Stein, Poetics of the New, 114.
- 4.
Ibid., 112.
- 5.
Ibid., 107.
- 6.
Ibid., 111.
- 7.
“Introduction,” Mallarmé: The Poems, trans. Keith Bosley (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977), 39.
- 8.
“Gertrude Stein ,” in The Last Lunar Baedecker, ed. Roger L. Conover (Highlands: Jargon, 1982), 289.
- 9.
David Lehman , ed., Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to the Present (New York: Scribner Poetry, 2003), 21.
- 10.
Gertrude Stein , “The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tender Buttons, by Gertrude Stein ,” last modified March 17, 2005, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15396/15396-h/15396.
- 11.
See, for example, the impressive prose poem “Color,” by Barbara Guest, in Great American Prose Poems, 73.
- 12.
Gertrude Stein , http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15396/15396-h/15396.
- 13.
Steven Monte , Prose Poetry as a Genre in French and American Literature (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 2000), 89.
- 14.
William Carlos Williams , Imaginations (New York: New Directions, 1970), 29.
- 15.
Williams, Kora in Hell: Improvisations (Boston: Four Seas, 1920), 85. California Digital Library—digitized by the Internet Archive, 2007. https://archive.org/stream/korainhellimpro00willrich#page/84/mode/2up.
- 16.
Mina Loy, “Interview with Paul Blackburn and Robert Vas Dias,” in Mina Loy : Woman and Poet, ed. Maeera Shreiber and Keith Tuma. Introduction by Carolyn Burke (Orono: National Poetry Foundation, 1998), 205–243.
- 17.
Mina Loy , The Last Lunar Baedeker, ed. Roger L. Conover (Highlands: Jargon Society, 1982), 81.
- 18.
Loy, Last Lunar Baedeker, 291.
- 19.
David Jones , Arduity, “In Parenthesis: Pts 1–4: Part Two, Chambers Go Off, Corporals Stay,” http://www.arduity.com/poets/jones/inparenthesis.html.
- 20.
Peter Murphy, “Orpheus Returning: The Nature of Myth in Samuel Beckett ’s ‘Still’ Trilogy,” The International Fiction Review, 11.2 (1984): 110, https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/IFR/article/viewFile/13704/14786.
- 21.
Samuel Beckett , “Still,” in Texts for Nothing and Other Shorter Prose, 1950–1976 (London: Faber, 2010), 155.
- 22.
Murphy, “Orpheus Returning,” 110.
- 23.
Lydia Davis, From “A Mown Lawn,” in The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2009), 314.
- 24.
Lee Harwood , foreword to Collected Poems (Exeter: Shearsman, 2004), 12.
- 25.
Harwood, Collected Poems, 290.
- 26.
Mark Ford , “Emerging Glorious from the Clouds,” review of Collected Poems, by Lee Harwood , Guardian Review, September 18, 2004, 25.
- 27.
James Schuyler , “Vermont Diary,” in The Crystal Lithium (New York: Random House, 1972), 55.
- 28.
Ken Edwards, “Valediction,” under Reality Street, July 12, 2016, http://www.realitystreet.co.uk/reality-street-blog/valediction.
- 29.
An eye-opening comprehensive exhibition, Migrant and the Poetry of Possibility, was curated by the poet Richard Price in 2007 in the Folio Gallery, The British Library.
- 30.
See Cid Corman, ed., The Gist of Origin: 1951–1971: An Anthology Edited by Cid Corman (New York: Grossman, 1975).
- 31.
Gael Turnbull , From “Twenty Words: Twenty Days: A Sketchbook & a Morula,” in A Gathering of Poems 1950–1980 (London: Anvil, 1983), 69–70.
- 32.
“Tom Raworth ,” The Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/tom-raworth.
- 33.
Tom Raworth , Act (London: Trigram, 1973), [unpaginated].
- 34.
Marjorie Perloff , Review of Collected Poems, by Tom Raworth , Times Literary Supplement, May 30, 2003, http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/perloff/articles/raworth.pdf.
- 35.
Roy Fisher , Interviews Through Time & Selected Prose, ed. Tony Frazer (Kentisbeare: Shearsman, 2000), 47.
- 36.
Roy Fisher , Poems 1955–1987 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 100.
- 37.
Fisher, Interviews, 46–47.
- 38.
Helen Louise Taylor, “Adrian Henri and the Merseybeat Movement: Performance, Poetry, and Public in the Liverpool Scene of the 1960s.” PhD dissertation, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2013, https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/files/17852529/2013TaylorHLPhD.pdf, 12
- 39.
Taylor, “Adrian Henri ,” 47.
- 40.
Ibid., 60–61.
- 41.
Ibid., 12.
- 42.
Ibid., 57.
- 43.
“Extracts from Adrian Henri , Notes on Painting and Poetry (1968),” http://www.adrianhenri.com/writer-ah-extracts-notes-painting-poetry.html.
- 44.
In The Mersey Sound, Penguin Modern Poets 10, Revised and enlarged edition (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974), 29–30.
- 45.
Taylor, “Adrian Henri ,” 84.
- 46.
Ibid., 82.
- 47.
Peter Riley , “(prose poem),” The Derbyshire Poems (Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2010), 45.
- 48.
Riley, “10/73,” Excavations (Hastings: Reality Street, 2004), http://www.aprileye.co.uk/books.html.
- 49.
David Chaloner , “Risks,” Fading Into Brilliance (London: Oasis, 1978), 24; reprinted in Collected Poems (Cambridge: Salt, 2005), 176–177.
- 50.
Robert Hampson, “Gavin Selerie ’s ‘Roxy’ and ‘Le Fanu’s Ghost’.” Jacket Magazine 36, 2008, http://jacketmagazine.com/36/r-selerie-rb-hampson.html.
- 51.
Gavin Selerie , Strip Signals (Newcastle upon Tyne: Galloping Dog, 1986), 14; reprinted in Music’s Duel: New and Selected Poems (Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2009), 124.
- 52.
See, for example, two contemporary anthologies: the impressive Out of Everywhere 2: Linguistically Innovative Poetry by Women in North America & the UK, ed., Emily Critchley (Hastings: Reality Street, 2015), in which no less than 20 of its 44 contributors are represented by prose poems or pieces that combine poems and prose poems; and Short: An International Anthology of Five Centuries of Short-Short Stories, Prose Poems, Brief Essays, and Other Short Prose Forms, ed. Alan Ziegler (New York: Persea, 2014).
Works Cited
Allen, Donald M., and Warren Tallmann, eds. The Poetics of the New American Poetry. New York: Grove Press, 1973.
Beckett, Samuel. “Still.” In Texts for Nothing and Other Shorter Prose, 1950–1976. London: Faber, 2010.
Chaloner, David. “Risks.” Fading into Brilliance. London: Oasis, 1978. Reprinted in Collected Poems. Cambridge: Salt, 2005.
Corman, Cid, ed. The Gist of Origin: 1951–1971: An Anthology. Edited by Cid Corman. New York: Grossman, 1975.
Critchley, Emily, ed. Out of Everywhere 2: Linguistically Innovative Poetry by Women in North America & the UK. Hastings: Reality Street, 2015.
Davis, Lydia. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009.
Edwards, Ken. “Valediction,” under Reality Street, July 12, 2016. http://www.realitystreet.co.uk/reality-street-blog/valediction.
Fisher, Roy. Poems 1955–1987. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
———. Interviews Through Time & Selected Prose. Edited by Tony Frazer. Kentisbeare: Shearsman, 2000.
Ford, Mark. “Emerging Glorious from the Clouds.” Review of Collected Poems, by Lee Harwood, Guardian Review. September 18, 2004.
Hampson, Robert. “Gavin Selerie’s ‘Roxy’ and ‘Le Fanu’s Ghost’.” Jacket Magazine 36, 2008. http://jacketmagazine.com/36/r-selerie-rb-hampson.html.
Harwood, Lee. Foreword to Collected Poems. Exeter: Shearsman, 2004.
Henri, Adrian. “Extracts from Adrian Henri, Notes on Painting and Poetry (1968).” http://www.adrianhenri.com/writer-ah-extracts-notes-painting-poetry.html.
———. The Mersey Sound, Penguin Modern Poets 10. Revised and Enlarged Edition. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.
Jones, David. “In Parenthesis: Pts 1–4: Part Two, Chambers Go Off, Corporals Stay,” 1937. http://www.arduity.com/poets/jones/inparenthesis.html.
Lehman, David, ed. Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to the Present. New York: Scribner Poetry, 2003.
Loy, Mina. “Gertrude Stein.” In The Last Lunar Baedecker, edited by Roger L. Conover. Highlands: Jargon, 1982.
———. The Last Lunar Baedeker. Edited by Roger L. Conover. Highlands: Jargon Society, 1982.
———. “Interview with Paul Blackburn and Robert Vas Dias.” In Mina Loy: Woman and Poet, edited by Maeera Shreiber and Keith Tuma. Introduction by Carolyn Burke. Orono: National Poetry Foundation, 1998, 205–43.
Mallarme, Stéphane. “Introduction.” In Mallarmé: The Poems, translated by Keith Bosley. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
Monte, Steven. Prose Poetry as a Genre in French and American Literature. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 2000.
Murphy, Peter. “Orpheus Returning: The Nature of Myth in Samuel Beckett’s ‘Still’ Trilogy.” The International Fiction Review, 11.2 (1984): 110. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/IFR/article/viewFile/13704/14786.
Perloff, Marjorie. Review of Collected Poems, by Tom Raworth, Times Literary Supplement, May 30, 2003. http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/perloff/articles/raworth.pdf.
Perse, St.-John. “Éloges” in Éloges and Other Poems. Translated by Louise Varèse. New York: Pantheon, 1956.
The Poetry Foundation. “Tom Raworth.” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/tom-raworth.
Price, Richard, curator. Migrant and the Poetry of Possibility. Folio Gallery, The British Library, 2007.
Raworth, Tom. Act. London: Trigram, 1973.
Riley, Peter. “10/73.” Excavations. Hastings: Reality Street, 2004. http://www.aprileye.co.uk/books.html.
———. “(prose poem).” The Derbyshire Poems. Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2010.
Schuyler, James. “Vermont Diary.” In The Crystal Lithium. New York: Random House, 1972.
Selerie, Gavin. Strip Signals. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Galloping Dog, 1986. Reprinted in Music’s Duel: New and Selected Poems. Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2009.
Stein, Gertrude. Poetics of the New American Poetry. Edited by Donald M. Allen and Warren Tallman. New York: Grove, 1973.
———. “The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tender Buttons, by Gertrude Stein.” Last modified March 17, 2005, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15396/15396-h/15396.
Taylor, Helen Louise. “Adrian Henri and the Merseybeat Movement: Performance, Poetry, and Public in the Liverpool Scene of the 1960s.” PhD dissertation, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2013, https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/files/17852529/2013TaylorHLPhD.pdf.
Turnbull, Gael. A Gathering of Poems 1950–1980. London: Anvil, 1983.
Williams, Carlos William. Imaginations. New York: New Directions, 1970.
———. Kora in Hell: Improvisations. Boston: The Fours Seas Company, 1920. California Digital Library. Digitized by the Internet Archive, 2007. https://archive.org/stream/korainhellimpro00willrich#page/84/mode/2up.
Ziegler, Alan, ed. Short: An International Anthology of Five Centuries of Short-Short Stories, Prose Poems, Brief Essays, and Other Short Prose Forms. New York: Persea, 2014.
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Vas Dias, R. (2018). The Flourishing of the Prose Poem in America and Britain. In: Monson, J. (eds) British Prose Poetry. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77863-1_4
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