the personal poetics of Robert Lowell and Allen Ginsberg

184 Pages·2011·0.91 MB·English

MCNEES, MATTHEW J., Ph.D. Suffering and Liberation: The Personal Poetics of
Robert Lowell and Allen Ginsberg. (2011)
Directed by Drs. Keith Cushman and Anthony Cuda. 174 pp.
This dissertation examines Robert Lowell and Allen Ginsberg’s personal poetry.
While both poets attend to the random details of daily life, thereby establishing common
ground as autobiographical writers, they differ markedly in their perspectives about the
value of those details. Lowell possesses a stark, often nihilistic view, attesting to the
irredeemable suffering of humanity; Ginsberg ascribes to a self-confident, sometimes
larger-than-life persona, believing that complete freedom from fear is possible for
everyone.
My approach is roughly chronological, beginning when both poets committed
themselves to personal, autobiographical poetry during the 1950s. The temporal frame of
the study, with a few exceptions, spans from the early 1950s through the l970s. I give due
attention to each poet’s “breakthrough” work in the 1950s--like Ginsberg’s Howl and
Lowell’s Life Studies--but I also place both poets on a larger continuum that began before
they wrote their breakthrough works and lasted beyond their initial success.
I explain Lowell and Ginsberg’s place in the broader literary history of the
modern poets that immediately preceded them. Each found the tenets of modern poetry
limiting to his personal approach and found it necessary to resuscitate the value of
individual, personal subjectivity, something that countered the prevailing notions of
objective poetry as put forth most notably by T. S. Eliot. Lowell’s commitment to
personal poetry came after he had already established his reputation in the 1940s, so his
break into personal poetry was highly self-conscious; Ginsberg committed to it early and
he never wavered in his approach.
Most importantly, I bring the two poets together historically. Throughout, I make
clear that their poetry embodies certain changes that occur simultaneously in American
society and culture. In chapter 4, I examine a set of poems they wrote in relation to the
Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s. Their opinions and strategies in these poems are
consistent with their general views on humanity and emerge in relation to larger social
views of the time. In addition, I bookend my study with two historical moments: the first
and the last times that the poets were together. My prologue discusses their first meeting,
in 1959, when they two were just beginning to gain their reputations as influential
autobiographical poets: Ginsberg had just made a great splash with Howl in a volume that
came to represent beat poetry, and Lowell was making his own bold statement with Life
Studies in a volume that came to define confessional poetry. At this time, they criticized
each other and thought more about their perceived differences in style and perspective
than they did about the common ground they shared as personal poets. My epilogue
discusses the only reading that the two poets ever gave together, in 1977, a time when
they seemed less and less polar opposites to each other and more and more, as Lowell
quipped at the time, “opposite ends of William Carlos Williams.” In essence, my study is
itself an extension of this claim.
This study therefore mirrors the way that these two poets committed themselves
to and pursued a personal aesthetic. They began by rigorously examining themselves as
the subjects of their poems and they ended with the same strategy. As Ginsberg wrote in
Howl, “the absolute heart of the poem” should be “butchered out of their own bodies”; as
Lowell reflected in his “Epilogue,” “why not say what happened?” This study explores
what happened along the road, so to speak, with particular emphasis on the contrast
between Lowell’s belief that humankind’s condition is turmoil and Ginsberg’s that we can
ultimately liberate ourselves from pain.
The manner in which Lowell and Ginsberg treated the individual subject, one they
usually assumed to be themselves, led to their own particular explorations of pain and
liberation. As Lowell delved more deeply into his own turmoil, he came to write about
the pain associated with sight: he seemed to see a world as it plainly presents itself in
everyday reality, yet he suffered more and more as a result of his inability to accurately
explain what he saw. As Ginsberg sought out ways to liberate himself and others, he
made an example of himself as one who could remove what he believed to be social
masks forced upon all human beings. He therefore wrote many poems aimed to alleviate
basic fears about society and its norms, fears that he thought everybody experienced and
must overcome. These authors’ unconventional dedication to personal poetry asks that we
constantly reconsider how suffering and liberation can play vital roles as we negotiate our
own identity and move between our own private and public selves, broadening the scope
of discourses that define the role of the individual in literature.
SUFFERING AND LIBERATION:
THE PERSONAL POETICS OF
ROBERT LOWELL AND
ALLEN GINSBERG
by
Matthew J. McNees
A Dissertation Submitted to
the Faculty of the Graduate School at
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Greensboro
2011
Approved By
______________________________
______________________________
Committee Co-Chairs
DEDICATION
For Heather and Maggie Pearl.
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APPROVAL PAGE
This dissertation has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of
The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Committee Co-Chairs _________________________________________
_________________________________________
Committee Member _________________________________________
_________________________________________
Date of Acceptance by Committee
_________________________________________
Date of Final Oral Examination
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Keith Cushman, the co-director of this dissertation, has gone above and beyond--
for years--with his intellectual generosity and his devoted mentoring. Along the way, he
memorably nurtured my essay on Lawrence and Rilke’s poetry, and when I finally got it
right, he suggested that I participate with him in a conference in Paris. This experience
opened many doors for me. His great care for my studies culminated in a productive and
rewarding final summer.
Tony Cuda, the other co-director, pushed me to refine my argument and
challenged me in ways that have greatly strengthened this project. His great knowledge of
twentieth-century poetry in English has been an invaluable resource.
Jennifer Keith offered a thoughtful reading that posed excellent questions and
provided valuable feedback.
Several allies gave much needed help, affirmation, advice, and friendship. Thanks
in particular to Will Dodson, Stephen Maynard, Rae Ann Meriwether and Belinda Walzer.
Michael Dennison, James Brasfield, and Skot Jones remained excellent friends.
My brothers and parents also offered support, and my father, the first literary
fellow I ever met, got me into this mess to begin with.
My little daughter Maggie Pearl’s constant joy was an inspiration.
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And my wife Heather, amaranthine companion, supported me more than anyone.
She even spent time looking for typos on our anniversary.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
CHAPTER
I. PROLOGUE -- A BRIEF EXCHANGE OF LETTERS IN 1959 ........................ 1
II. INTRODUCTION:
ROBERT LOWELL AND ALLEN GINSBERG .............................................. 5
An Overview of Their Scholarly and Historical Contexts. .................... 5
Lowell and Ginsberg in Twentieth-Century Literary History ..........…. 7
Delmore Schwartz’s Essays in the 1930s and 1940’s .......................... 11
Critics on Lowell and Ginsberg ....................................……………… 16
Dissertation Outline .............................................................................24
III. “GAZING THE IMPOSSIBLE SUMMIT”:
THE SUFFERER IN ROBERT LOWELL’S POETRY. ..................................28
Survey of Criticism ..............................................................................28
Moments of Seeing and Suffering in Life Studies ................................36
Lowell’s Later Poetry ...........................................................................50
IV. “VOW TO MANKIND -- RELEASE OF PARTICULARS”:
ALLEN GINSBERG’S POETRY AS LIBERATION ..................................... 71
Introduction to Ginsberg as Liberating Beat Poet ............................... 71
Ginsberg’s Liberation from Social Fear: Howl, Spirituality,
Prophecy, and “Communicative” Art in Perilous Social
and Artistic Times ...........................................................................83
Bringing His View of the Vietnam War Back Home ..........................101
Final Poems, Final Thoughts on Personal Poetry. ..............................110
V. CRITIQUE OF AMERICA:
LOWELL AND GINSBERG IN THE LATE 60S ..........................................113
Lowell and Ginsberg March into the Late 60s ....................................113
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Lowell and Ginsberg’s Place In and Influence On the
Late 60s ........................................................................................ 126
Politics and Culture in Lowell:
The Past as It Is and the Poet Mixed Up in Politics ......................129
Politics and Culture in Ginsberg:
The Past as “All Memory at Once” and the Poet
Who Helps Society ........................................................................143
VI. EPILOGUE -- “AN IMPOSSIBLE LOVE”: FEBRUARY 23, 1977.. ..............154
BIBLIOGRAPHY. ...........................................................................................................160
NOTES. ............................................................................................................................170
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