The Kingfishers
by Charles Olson
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At a glance:
- Author: Charles Olson
- First Published: 1950
- Type of Poem: Meditation
- Genres: Poetry, Meditation
- Subjects: History, Revolutions, Native Americans or American Indians, Violence, Mexico or Mexicans, Aztecs, Conquest, Birds, Greek or Roman times, China or Chinese people, Greece or Greek people, Rome, Cemeteries, Conquistadors
The Poem
“The Kingfishers,” a lyrical meditation on the ruins of an Aztec burial ground, is written in a bold style invented for this poem, which Charles Olson explained shortly after in his essay of 1950, “Projective Verse.” The poem does away with such formalities as rhyme and regular meters, symmetrical stanzas, and the normal pattern of argument in which particulars move toward universals or vice versa. Instead, it proceeds through a succession of widely varying stanzaic units as information is brought into the discourse and a unifying perception is drawn from the...
(The entire page is 2097 words.)
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