Lyric Encounters Lyric Encounters Essays on American Poetry from Lazarus and Frost to Ortiz Cofer and Alexie Daniel Morris Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 175 Fifth Avenue 50 Bedford Square New York London NY 10010 WC1B 3DP USA UK www.bloomsbury.com First published 2013 © Daniel Morris, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author. ISBN: 978-1-4411-5994-6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Morris, Daniel, 1962- Lyric encounters : essays on American poetry from Lazarus and Frost to Ortiz Cofer and Alexie / by Daniel Morris. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4411-9442-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4411-5156-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. American poetry–20th century–History and criticism. 2. Lyric poetry–History and criticism. I. Title. PS323.5.M66 2013 811'.509--dc23 2012049675 Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii 1 Introduction 1 2 “Go Home and Write a Page Tonight”: Subversive Irony and Resistant Reading in Langston Hughes’s “Theme for English B” 13 3 The Erotics of Close Reading: Williams, Demuth, and “The Crimson Cyclamen” 27 4 Queering Time: Allen Ginsberg, “America,” and the Cold War 41 5 Active and Passive Citizenship in Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus” and Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica” 67 6 Queer Desire as Mediated through the Horn and the Pen: Elegy as Love Letter or Love Letter as Elegy in Michael S. Harper’s “Dear John, Dear Coltrane” 81 7 Frank Bidart’s Voice and the Erasure of Jewish Difference in “Ellen West” 99 vi CONTENTS 8 Narrative and Survival in The Delicacy and Strength of Lace 133 9 Before and After the Fall: Tribalism, Individualism, and Multicultural Poetics in Sherman Alexie 155 10 Coda: “Mending Wall” and Tikkun Olam: The Case for the Humanities Classroom 201 Bibliography 207 Index 219 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to the many persons who have discussed aspects of this book with me. I am sure I will not remember everybody. I thank Purdue colleagues: Marlo David, Wendy Flory, Christian Knoeller, Matthew Kroll, Walter Moore, Bill Mullen, Venetria Patton, Nancy Peterson, Donald Platt, Amy Pommerening, Charles Ross, Jimmy Saunders, Mike Yetman. At conferences and through correspondences: David Epstein, Tom Fink, Norman Finkelstein, Eugene Goodheart, Allen Grossman, Trudier Harris, Michael Heller, Glen MacLeod, R. Baxter Miller, Stephen Paul Miller, Ranen Omer-Sherman, Donald E. Pease, Margaret Scanlan, Daniel R. Schwarz, Siobhan Somerville. A very special thank you to Ethan Goffman. Ethan has read, commented upon, and edited my work – on this project and others – for several years. His knowledge of literature, politics, and culture is extensive. He pushes me to refine my thoughts and do my best work. Bloomsbury has been a fabulous publisher. I am grateful to Susan Dunsmore, Ally Jane Grossan, Haaris Naqvi, Kim Storry. Purdue has offered significant financial and staff support. I thank Liberal Arts Dean Irwin Weiser, Jewish Studies director Daniel Frank, and English department Head Nancy Peterson for providing research support. I thank Sheila Featherstone and Erica Cox of the English department staff for their support. Purdue libraries have provided great access to materials, including through the Interlibrary Loan service. My greatest thank you goes to my family. I am so very grateful to my wife Joy and children Isaac, Aaron, and Hannah. You make every day special. viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Some of the chapters in this book originally appeared in somewhat different form in the following journals. I thank the editors and referees for these journals. Their efforts have improved the current versions. “The Erotics of Close Reading: Williams, Demuth, and ‘The Crimson Cyclamen’.” William Carlos Williams Review 27. 1 (2007 Spring): 57–68. “‘The Word Gets Around’: Silko’s Theory of Narrative Survival in The Delicacy and Strength of Lace.” Western American Literature 34. 1 (1999 Spring): 48–67. “‘Go Home and Write a Page Tonight’: Subversive Irony and Resistant Reading in “Theme for English B.” The Langston Hughes Review. Volume 24–25. Winter/Fall 2010/2011: 20–30. “‘Mending Wall’: The Case for the Humanities Classroom.” Tikkun 26(1): 2011. Online exclusive. “Active and Passive Citizenship in Emma Lazarus’s ‘The New Colossus’ and Judith Ortiz Cofer’s ‘The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica.’” Papers on Language and Literature. 287–301. Volume 48, Number 3, Summer 2012. “On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City” from First Indian on the Moon (c) 1993 by Sherman Alexie. Reprinted by permission of Hanging Loose Press. “Dear John, Dear Coltrane” from Songlines in Michaeltree: New and Collected Poems by Michael S. Harper. Reprinted by permission of the University of Illinois Press. “Ellen West” from In The Western Night: Collected Poems 1965–1990 by Frank Bidart. Copyright © 1990 by Frank Bidart. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. and Carcanet Press Limited. “Theme for English B” from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad with ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix David Roessel, Associate Editor, copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House, Inc. for permission. “The Crimson Cyclamen” from The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Vol. 1: 1909–1939. Copyright by New Directions Publishing Corporation. Copyright © 1982, 1986 by William Eric Williams and Paul H. Williams. “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica” by Judith Ortiz Cofer. Reprinted by permission of the University of Houston and Arte Publico Press. “America” from Collected Poems 1947-1980 by Allen Ginsberg. Copyright (c) 1956, 1959 by Allen Ginsberg. Reprinted by Permission of HarperCollins Publishers. For additional territory. The Estate of Allen Ginsberg, as successor in interest to the rights of Allen Ginsberg, c/o The Wylie Agency, Inc., 250 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10107.