Language Poets - Jerome McGann (review date 15 October 1987)
Jerome McGann (review date 15 October 1987)
SOURCE: McGann, Jerome. “Language Writing.” London Review of Books 9, no. 18 (15 October 1987): 6-8.
[In the following review of two anthologies of Language Poetry, McGann sketches the characteristics of the Language Poets' style and philosophy.]
In 1918, the intensity of Yeats's fascination with the young American phenomenon Ezra Pound had cooled enough for Jack Butler Yeats to supply his son with some smouldering paternal wisdom:
The poets loved of Ezra Pound are tired of Beauty, since they have met it so often … I am tired of Beauty my wife, says the poet, but here is that enchanting mistress Ugliness. With her I will live and what a riot we shall have. Not a day shall pass without a fresh horror. Prometheus leaves his rock to cohabit with the Furies.
Jack Yeats's judgments are better-worded than most attacks on the innovative experiments of early...
[The entire page is 3980 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
