Before Modernism: Inventing American Lyric PDF
Preview Before Modernism: Inventing American Lyric
before modernism Before Modernism inventing american lyric virginia jackson prince ton university press Princeton & Oxford Copyright © 2023 by Prince ton University Press Prince ton University Press is committed to the protection of copyright and the intellectual property our authors entrust to us. Copyright promotes the pro gress and integrity of knowledge. Thank you for supporting free speech and the global exchange of ideas by purchasing an authorized edition of this book. If you wish to reproduce or distribute any part of it in any form, please obtain permission. Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to permissions@press . princeton . edu Published by Prince ton University Press 41 William Street, Prince ton, New Jersey 08540 99 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6JX press . princeton . edu All Rights Reserved Names: Jackson, Virginia, author. Title: Before modernism : inventing American lyric / Virginia Jackson. Description: Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2022019918 (print) | LCCN 2022019919 (ebook) | ISBN 9780691232805 (paperback) | ISBN 9780691232799 (hardback) | ISBN 9780691233116 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Lyric poetry—History and criticism. | American poetry— 18th century—History and criticism. | American poetry—19th century— History and criticism. | American poetry—African American authors— History and criticism. | Poetics—History. | LCGFT: Literary criticism. Classification: LCC PS309.L8 J33 2023 (print) | LCC PS309.L8 (ebook) | DDC 811/.0409896073—dc23/eng/20220722 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022019918 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022019919 British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available Editorial: Anne Savarese and James Collier Production Editorial: Ellen Foos and Jaden Young Jacket/Cover Design: Katie Osborne Production: Lauren Reese Publicity: Alyssa Sanford and Charlotte Coyne Copyeditor: Jennifer Harris Jacket image: Engraving depicting a view of the night sky showing the milky way. Dated 19th century. World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo This book has been composed in Arno (Classic) Printed on acid- free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of Amer i ca 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 to Martin, Sadye, Walker & Yopie and in memory of Elizabeth Wanning Harries Though other stars may round thee burn, With larger disk and brighter ray, And fiery comets round thee turn, While millions mark their blazing way; And the pale moon and planets bright Reflect on us their silvery light. Not like that moon, now dark, now bright, In phase and place forever changing; Or planets with reflected light, Or comets through the heavens ranging; They all seem varying to our view, While thou art ever fixed and true. — james monroe whitfield, “the north star,” 1849 contents List of Illustrations xi A Note on Names xiii Preface: Mnemosyne 1 1 What History Does to Us 13 “We do view” 13 “The rising race” 21 An Imaginary Person 30 An American Lyric 38 Minstrel Reading 50 The Continuity of American Poetry 57 2 Apostrophe, Animation, and Racism: Pierpont, Douglass, Whitfield— and Horton 64 “O poets to come” 64 Two in One 66 The Night Sky 71 Surplus Lyricism 83 Individual Influence; or, Catachresis 88 3 Personification: On Phillis Wheatley’s Memory 102 Phillis’s Wake 102 On Recollection 111 ix x contents Experience Uncounted and Unclaimed 118 Personifications But Not People 125 4 Prosody: William Cullen Bryant and the White Romantic Lyric 139 The Poet’s History 139 “Thy solitary way” 151 Like April Snow 162 The Forms of Being 169 5 The Poetess: Frances Ellen Watkins, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper 190 A Specific Vacancy 190 Eva’s Farewell 197 Accents Disconsolate 211 Unheard Music 224 Coda: The Prophecy 232 Acknowl edgments 243 Notes 247 Selected Bibliography 275 Index 291
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