The Maximus Poems (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Olson
- First Published: 1960
- Type of Work: Long poem
- Genres: Free verse, Poetry, Lyric sequence
- Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, Philosophy or philosophers, Mythology or myths, Sailing or sailors, Fishing or fishermen, Cities or towns, Commerce, Geology or geologists, Poetics
The first volume of what eventually became a three-volume, six-hundred-page poem was called The Maximus Poems. It was published by the Jargon Society, a press which had been created by poet (and former student of Olson) Jonathan Williams. The keys to an understanding of the entire Maximus project are the specific maps that Olson placed on the covers of the first two volumes. A U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey map of Gloucester, Massachusetts, appears on the cover of the first volume, immediately grounding the reader in the specific geography of the place where Olson spent his...
[The entire page is 1279 words long]
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