During
the 1930s to the 1950s, the Black Mountain College began
experimenting with a new method for education; stressing greater
importance on the arts. The theory was that it was essential for
human understanding, when combined with technical and analytical
skills as well. Charles Olson, one of the teachers at the college for
a few years, came up with the term "projective verse", in
which they stressed more importance in the process of a poem as
apposed to the final product. Similar to modern art, this would
create a lot of works that seemed to lack a description or reason,
but would allow the creator to be spontaneous and not become chained
down by the rules of language. Without being chained down by the
rules and boundaries of the language, poets would be free to express
themselves. This would all eventually lead up to the development of
the Language school of poetry.
Language
poetry (also referred to as L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E P=O=E=T=R=Y, if you have
the time to type that out) was a movement that was developed in the
1970s that would place greater emphasis on language of the poem. In
other words, rather then the poet trying to find the words to get
across their idea, they would instead use words that would create
their own meaning. Poets would not have to concern themselves with
whether or not the words they were using would get the message
across, but instead finding words that can be given new meanings.
This would get the reader more involved in the writing, as humans are
typically always looking for meaning or patterns in whatever they are
involved in, they begin to find new ways to approach the poem so that
they can give it meaning. This, in turn, would create more interest
in the structure and rules of the language and how rearranging them
can change how ideas are represented, formulated and transmited.
This, in it's own way, was a revolution against the social polictical
structure that was currently in place for the English language and
would result in causing the reader to begin to see text of any type
in a new light. They could see pass the definitions that were already
enforced and see a new way in which the words can be interpreted.
Charles
Bernstein is a poet, an essayist, and a literary scholar and is known
for being one of the editors for the magazine L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E which
was condsidered the starting point for Language Poetry. He has
written several poems that are good examples of what Language poetry
is. His poem thinkingi think i think when
first read, seems to be like taking a glimspse inside a mans head;
the thoughts have little to no connections with eachother and they
ranch in topics from what seems to be sports headlines to snippets
from books. When first reading through it, the reader will be at
first, completely confused and the more they try to break down the
meaning or the purpose of the poem, the more frustrating it becomes.
They could try reading the first letter of every line only, reading
only every other line, cutting the paper into bits and rearranging
them into shapes to see if this has been some simple trick, but with
any new modern art, part of the meaning can be derived from how the
poem was created in the first place. In an interview with Bradford
Senning, Bernstein can be quoted for saying "I want to engage
the materials of the culture, derange them as they have deranged me,
sound them out, as they have sounded me out." Many of Bernsteins
poems, such as
DearMr. Fanelli
or
ATest of Poetry
deal with the modern world and include text that have been take from
our time from places such as official documents, advertisements,
articles etc. and set them up in a way that makes it seem surreal to
the reader and causes them to ask questions and really think about
what they have just read. In this way, Language poetry does not focus
on any meaning that the writer may have been trying to get across,
but instead, causes the reader to become more engaged with the text
they are reading and use the words that are there to create their own
meaning.
Other
Language poets including Michael Palmer, Rae Armantrout and Susan
Howe, also feature poems that do not seem to follow a purpose or
narrative. Susan Howes poem, from
Cabbage Gardenshas been interpreted in various ways; being about an individual
seeking guidance, a battle by the edge of the sea or even the poet
remeniscing about days gone by. Neither of these interpretations are
considered wrong, and the wonderful thing about Language Poetry is
it's ability to bring forth the imagination of the reader. Though
most conclude that it makes no sense and is complete nonesense,
readers are still able to gleam a bit of meaning on their own thus
proving that the poet does not need to concern themselves in finding
words to create meaning, but instead trust that meaning can be
gleamed from the words that are given.
All
in all, Language poetry has had an immense influence not only in the
poetry world, but in the day to day lives of any person. They do not
need to be professional poets or even have a lot of experience with
the English language. Language poetry can be seen with all sorts of
different meanings and they can still be considered correct. It does
not focus on the meaning that should be there, but instead, the
meaning that could exist. By ignoring the model for creating
narratives, Language poets have discovered new ways in which to
engage the reader. They have shown that meaning can be gleamed from
something that did not seem or intended to have, meaning before.
Language Poetry brings out deeper meaning from our language and
allows any reader to see the world from a new perspective.
Works
Cited
"A
Brief Guide to Language Poetry." Poets.org. Academy
of American Poets, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.
"Charles
Bernstein." : The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web.
05 Nov. 2013.
"Glossary
Terms." Language Poetry : Glossary Term : Learning Lab :
The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.
"Poetry
Previews: Language Poetry." Poetry Previews: Language
Poetry. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.
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