The Cambridge Introduction to American Poetry since 1945 Contemporary American poetry can often seem intimidating and daunting in its variety and complexity. This engaging and accessible book provides the first comprehensive introduction to the rich body of American poetry that has flourished since 1945 and offers a useful map to its current landscape. By exploring the major poets, movements, and landmark poems at the heart of this era, this book presents a compelling new version of the history of American poetry that takes into account its variety and breadth, its recent evolution in the new millennium, its ever-increasing diversity, and its ongoing engagement with politics and culture. Combining illuminating close readings of a wide range of representative poems with detailed discussion of historical, political, and aesthetic contexts, this book examines how poets have tirelessly invented new forms and styles to respond to the complex realities of American life and culture. Andrew Epstein is Professor of English at Florida State University. He is the author of Attention Equals Life: The Pursuit of the Everyday in Contemporary Poetry and Culture and Beautiful Enemies: Friendship and Postwar American Poetry, and he blogs about the New York School of poetry at Locus Solus. blih d li b C bid i i blih d li b C bid i i The Cambridge Introduction to American Poetry since 1945 ANDREW EPSTEIN Florida State University blih d li b C bid i i University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India 103 Penang Road, #05–06/07, Visioncrest Commercial, Singapore 238467 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108482370 DOI: 10.1017/9781108687317 © Andrew Epstein 2023 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2023 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Epstein, Andrew, 1969– author. Title: The Cambridge introduction to American poetry since 1945 / Andrew Epstein. Description: Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2022026523 | ISBN 9781108482370 (hardback) | ISBN 9781108687317 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: American poetry – 20th century – History and criticism. | American poetry – 21st century – History and criticism. Classification: LCC PS323.5 .E673 2023 | DDC 811/.5409–dc23/eng/20221003 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022026523 ISBN 978-1-108-48237-0 Hardback ISBN 978-1-108-71212-5 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. blih d li b C bid i i For my parents blih d li b C bid i i blih d li b C bid i i Contents Acknowledgments page ix Introduction: American Poetry since 1945 1 From Modernist to Contemporary Poetry 6 Part I American Poetry from 1945 to 1970 Chapter 1 The Raw and the Cooked: The New Criticism versus the New American Poetry 15 Chapter 2 The Black Mountain Poets 28 Chapter 3 The Beats and the San Francisco Renaissance 43 Chapter 4 The New York School of Poetry 60 Chapter 5 The Middle Generation, Elizabeth Bishop, and Confessional Poetry 87 Chapter 6 Deep Image Poetry 113 Chapter 7 African American Poetry from 1945 to 1970 119 vii blih d li b C bid i i viii Contents Part II American Poetry from 1970 to 2000 Chapter 8 A New “Mainstream” Period Style in Poetry of the 1970s and 1980s 137 Chapter 9 Language Poetry 145 Chapter 10 Feminism and Women’s Poetry from 1970 to 2000 160 Chapter 11 Diversity, Identity, and Poetry from 1970 to 2000 174 African American Poetry from 1970 to 2000 176 Latinx Poetry from 1970 to 2000 185 Asian American Poetry from 1970 to 2000 192 Native American Poetry from 1970 to 2000 197 LGBTQ Poetry from 1970 to 2000 200 Part III Into the New Millennium: American Poetry from 2000 to the Present Chapter 12 New Directions in American Poetry from 2000 to the Present 207 “American Hybrid”: Beyond Binaries 210 New Directions for the Digital Era: Conceptualism, Found Language, and Poetry in the Age of Remix 216 Poetry in the Age of Obama and Trump: The Surge of the Political 223 Conclusion 231 Works Cited 234 Index 250 blih d li b C bid i i Acknowledgments I have been reading and studying post-1945 American poetry for almost as long as I can remember, and I am indebted to the many wonderful teachers who kindled and nurtured my fascination with the poetry of this period – from favorite early English teachers (Edward Solecki and Howard Glatt), to Kimberly Benston, James Ransom, and Thomas Jackson (at Haverford College and Bryn Mawr College), to Jonathan Levin, Ann Douglas, Ursula Heise, Edward Mendelson, David Lehman, and the late Kenneth Koch (at Columbia University). This book would not exist without the encouragement of Ray Ryan at Cambridge University Press – I am very grateful for his guidance, support, and patience. I also wish to thank the anonymous readers who read the manu- script for the Press at various stages for their very helpful advice and sugges- tions, along with the editorial and production staff at Cambridge University Press for all their assistance in bringing this book to life. I also want to express my thanks to the many scholars, poets, friends, and former students far and wide who have talked about post-1945 poetry with me and have helped shape my sense of American poetry and its possibilities, its history, and its present, including Kaveh Akbar, Robert Archambeau, Erin Belieu, Christopher Breu, Stephanie Burt, Rona Cran, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Steve Evans, Andy Fitch, Stephen Fredman, Brian Glavey, Alan Golding, Paul Jaussen, Kamran Javadizadeh, Daniel Kane, Evan Kindley, Peter Kunze, Ben Lee, Paige Lewis, Brian McHale, Jennifer Moxley, Aldon Nielsen, Paul Outka, Elizabeth Outka, Marjorie Perloff, Seth Perlow, Claudia Rankine, Susan Rosenbaum, Lisi Schoenbach, Yasmine Shamma, Michael Thurston, Tom Tooley, Gillian White, Johanna Winant, and Robert Zamsky. Deep thanks, also, to old friends with less daily investment in literature but whose friend- ship has continued to be a ballast, even (or especially) in the age of Zoom and social distance, including Jane McPherson and Jon Jefferson, Shannon Novey and Joe Williams, and Ashby Jones and the rest of the jumbo Haverford gang. At Florida State University, I wish to thank my recent department chairs, Eric Walker and Gary Taylor, and my terrific colleagues both in the English ix blih d li b C bid i i