Sherry Chandler

Pearls from Rexroth

I continue to make my way through Kenneth Rexroth’s American Poetry in the Twentieth Century. Some pithy observations therefrom (a little string of pearls):

• Philosophizing poets have been a dime a dozen in our epoch but [Wallace] Stevens is the only one who is actually a philosopher. (p.65)
• If the mind can be so constructed, the sensitivity so attuned, principle so unfalteringly adhered to, it is quite possible to produce poetry in which there are no mistakes. This does not mean that the verse of Wallace Stevens should be a model for others; it should not, for that very reason. It is the achievement of an individual poet as a unique being—a style. (p.68)
• The word “precious” is usually a term of condemnation. For Marianne Moore it is the highest possible praise. (p. 68)
• The important thing to remember about Gertrude Stein is that she is nowhere near as deep as she seems. She always said she meant literally whatever she said, and indeed she did. (p. 75)
• A dying social order, a dead language, a value system emptied of meaning—to assault the Old World with the learned arrogance of T. S. Eliot … is to assault it with pride and pride goeth before a fall. William Carlos Williams subverted it with humility. He has been a Taoist revolutionary—”Water seeks always the lowest place and washes away mountains.” (pp 77-78)

Fashion tends to be turning away from some of Rexroth’s opinions, especially about the relative worth of Eliot/Pound and Williams. Still, I find these thoughts worth pondering in trying to develop something like a prosody of my own. And it’s refreshing to find some one who actually considers Williams the deeper thinker.

Related posts:

Rexroth on the Tao

Rexroth on prosody

It’s the intellect, I think…

Rexroth on Native Americans

Rexroth on the Mandarins

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.