Analysis Of The New York Poets Essay Example For Students

Analysis Of The New York Poets Essay Free form poetry lacked the traditional poetic characteristics normally associated with traditional poetry or academic poetry, and could be seen as similar to a collage. Due to the fact that each poem took is constructed of various images which coincide to make one larger image, evident in Kochs poem Fresh Air. This idea is evident in Fresh Air due to the way in which Koch portrays his thoughts about academic poetry which is almost lifelike, in the sense that the poem lacks a structure yet still tells a story, making the poem itself almost autonomous. This can be Justified as the structure, which is free form, lacks both meter and a rhyme scheme. This poem in particular could be viewed as being similar to a collage, which is a type of art form made by sticking various images or materials to make one larger image. Just like a collage, Fresh Air pieces together various events to create a story. Koch may have done this to prove that Just like academic poetry, free form poetry can tell a story when necessary, Just using a different approach, a new approach. The first stanza of Fresh Air begins At the Poem Society a black haired man . This makes the poem seem almost like a recount of an event instead of an actual poem, implying that this may have been done in order to deviate from traditional standards set by academic poetry, and to bring a sense of life to the poem itself. In an interview with Kenneth Koch in 2002 he said that: Fresh Air is all about that awful academic poetry that I hated, that, I suppose, I was reacting against, I mean, all of these drippy people writing poems about being professors and having affairs with students and their marriages breaking up and Thorn and Odysseus and all this stuff. It was boring. As a result Kochs thirst for excitement was reflected in his poem. Furthermore, Kochs hatred for dullness is also reflected in the poem and as a result, there are numerous references to free form in comparison to academic poetry. For example, in Fresh Air Koch states that Once you have heard this poem you will not love any other, Once you have dreamed this dream you will be inconsolable, this shows the reader Kochs love for free form poetry and how he can never go back to the traditional standards, academic poetry, also in the fifth section of the poem he wants the air to rust their hypocrites a little and to be the sea air! E noxious! Kill them, if you must, whatever it takes as long as it can stop their poetry. This shows a strong hatred of academic poetry, a hatred so strong that Koch does not seem to care if someone dies in order for academic poetry to stop. John Jabbers, similarly, was able to bring a fresh sense of life using free form poetry, particularly in They Only Dream of America, which also resembles a collage, due to the fact that it is very erratic in terms of the actual content of the poem. While evident through the whole of They Only Dream of America, it is especially highlighted in the third stanza where it states Please, he asked willingly. He is thirty years old. That was before. All three sentences show no context when read out individually, but make sense when read together, this also shows aspects of stream of consciousness, in the sense that it almost seems as if each sentence is a new idea being noted down without finishing the previous idea, which all three poets portray in their poetry. On account of the poems erratic nature, critics have been able to infer many theories to the meaning of this poem. John Shoptalk, for instance, said: The misrepresentations of They Dream Only of America are homosexual. The thirteen million pillars of grass suggest not only Whitman Leaves of Grass but the pillar of salt to which Lots wife, no pillar of the community, was reduced to looking back on the destruction of Stood. Was the cigar a sign? / and what about the key? In this cluttered poem, in which every personal pronoun except she is represented, the sperms honey and phallic props (pillars, key, cigar, leg) take on a parodied significance. The dismembered Ames of the perpetrators, Jabbers and Marjory, may be partially reconstructed from the line And the murderers ash tray is more easily -. The romantic secrecy of the fugitive gay lovers is parallel here to the French Resistance (Marjory fought in its ranks, after his escape to Algeria) waiting for Americas liberation. Though the term gay liberation had not yet been coined, this poem seems to wait for its minting. The utopian American dream here fantasize a time and a place where gay lovers could come out of their lilac cubes. Like a collage various ideas have been pieced together to form one large image, this mime in the sense of sexual acceptance. This draws on to the idea of the poems written by each poet being very open-ended. Allowing various interpretations of the same poem. Normally, free form poetry takes the view of the poet, which can lead to more personal poetry, allowing the reader to take their own interpretations, the only way to know the true meaning of each poem is to ask the poet themselves. â€Å"The Rape of Lock† and â€Å"The Eve of St Agnes† Poetry EssayTower, and contemporary time, the construction of a building, the girders, and personal (lived) time. What we are witnessing (reading) here is an outside, a beyond, a past. We move from Debuted (we will return to him in the final stanza with the time oriented word memory) in France, from one building, the Eiffel Tower (girders), to another being constructed in the middle of Manhattan, Park Eve, by Iroquois workers. 5 Through the use of time Frank OHara not only brings a fresh sense of life in his poetry, he also embodies life, because Just like time, life is always changing. Through the use of both historic and contemporary time it makes the poem seem as though it is shaping around time, taking different aspects from both historic and contemporary time to make its own setting. The mixture of both historic and contemporary time makes the poem almost unique, the variation between geographic settings allows the poem to grasp two worlds. In the second stanza there is mention of the buildings that the Iroquois had constructed and that We owe a debt to the Iroquois and to Duke Longtime for playing in the buildings when they are built. This could be interpreted in the metaphorical sense as the Iroquois provided the building for Duke Longtime to play in, Duke Longtime being seen as representing all those who write free form poetry inhabiting the building in the contemporary time while those that partake in academic poetry are stuck on the girders unflinching-footed nude as they should be slightly empty. As a result this can be seen as OHara saying that academic poetry has had its time and now it is history, while free form poetry is Waiting to become part of the century. Keeping along with the idea of the arts and the city, here is also strong references in Poem (Lana Turner has collapsed! ) another poem written by Frank OHara. The mention of Lana Turner in the poem and the fact that she COLLAPSED! is a hyperbole that could be seen as the fall of Hollywood, not Just one singular person. In Poem (Lana Turner has collapsed! ), there is also use of poetic devices such as similes evident as the traffic was acting exactly like the sky. This simile also has traits of a hyperbole due to the fact that the sky cannot act like traffic and the traffic cannot act like the sky. Raising questions as to why OHara loud make this comparison as it is simply impossible, OHara may be referring to this in a metaphorical sense. Maybe the traffic isnt traffic at all it could represent poetry, if poetry were acting like the sky it would be free in movement, without structure hence, traffic could represent free form poetry. Frank OHara also utilities comedy in his poem as he states I have been to lots of parties and acted perfectly disgraceful but I never actually collapsed Oh Lana Turner we love you get up which makes the poem emotive, but only if you understand the reference. It shows that OHara was writing specifically for his time and generation, as someone from my generation may not be able to understand the Joke, or who Lana Turner is for that matter. As a result it makes the poem almost personal and time specific. All three poets utilities aspects of surrealism in their poetry, as stated by James Overshoes of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, surrealist poets: Poetry and prose drew upon the private world of the mind, traditionally restricted by reason and societal limitations, to produce surprising, unexpected imagery. 6 As all three poets have aspects of surrealism in their poetry it implies that they all write poetry based on the way they see and interpret the world. James Overshoes then goes on to describe surrealism as a clever and whimsical disregard for traditions. Just like surrealism free form poetry is a clever and whimsical disregard of academic poetry, bringing a sense of life from the surprising, unexpected imagery. Each of the poets have a certain dislike for academic poetry because of the traditional standards it has set, some more than others so they favor free form poetry due to its lack of set tankards and traditions.