Jorie Graham Criticism
Jorie Graham, an acclaimed American poet born in 1951, is celebrated for her innovative and intellectual approach to poetry. Her work engages deeply with metaphysical questions, particularly those concerning self-knowledge and history, reflecting her upbringing in Europe amidst rich artistic and architectural influences. Educated at the Sorbonne and later in the United States, Graham has held numerous academic positions, notably at the University of Iowa, which have informed her distinctive voice and style. Her poetry is characterized by a modernist approach in early collections such as Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts and Erosion, influenced by poets like Wallace Stevens. As her work evolved, she embraced more ambitious, abstract explorations of time, event, and self, particularly evident in The End of Beauty and Materialism, as noted by Helen Vendler.
Graham's poetry delves into profound dichotomies such as being versus knowing and eternity versus history. Her debut collection was noted for its craft and seriousness, while Erosion further explored themes of writing and art. With The End of Beauty, Graham introduced experimental features like blank spaces and algebraic variables, marking a significant stylistic shift. Such innovations continue in works like Materialism and Swarm, which push the boundaries of poetic form, as analyzed in James Ulmer's review of The End of Beauty.
Critics like Mark Jarman compare Graham's distinctive style to that of literary giants such as Dickinson and Eliot, acknowledging her as a major voice in American poetry. However, her work's complexity and somber tone have drawn mixed reviews, with some, including William Logan, finding it challenging. Nonetheless, her ability to innovate and push poetic boundaries is affirmed by her efforts to reshape lyrical poetry and engage with profound themes, as explored in Lisa Isaacson's review of Materialism and Andrew Hudgins's essay on Erosion.
Graham is noted for her efforts to redefine lyrical poetry by moving away from traditional narrative forms. While some, like Jonathan Holden, consider her style too somber, others, such as Bonnie Costello, praise its complexity and depth. Her poetry's ability to engage with philosophical and historical dimensions inspires admiration and debate among scholars, as highlighted by critics like James Longenbach and Peter Sacks. Through her innovative use of language and exploration of intellectual themes, Graham continues to challenge and expand the boundaries of contemporary poetry, solidifying her status as one of the most significant poets of her time.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Graham, Jorie (Contemporary Literary Criticism)
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Countering Culture
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Frost reviews Materialism and explores Graham's manipulation of Western philosophy, praising her handling of difficult ideas.
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The Mind of the Matter: CAT Scanning a Scat Singer
(summary)
In the review below, Melnyczuk compares Erosion to Graham's earlier writing and finds the poems in Erosion more urgent and arresting.
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The End of Beauty
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Boruch praises Graham's poems for their mystical, abstract quality, noting that they manage to combine elements of both Eliot and Stevens, presenting loose meditations that are frightening and ceremonial, while also engaging with timeless myths and contemporary themes.
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Mapping the Air
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Vendler argues that Graham expands on her earlier work, pushing forward her style of lyrical poetry. Graham's grand metaphysical theme is the tension between existence and death, expressed as that between other polarities, such as continuity and closure, indeterminacy and outline, being and temporality, or experience and art.
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The Big Hunger
(summary)
In the review below, Costello argues that while Graham's style has changed in her first four books, her philosophical quest remains the same.
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Jorie Graham: Art and Erosion
(summary)
In the following essay, Costello considers the visual images at the center of the poetry in Erosion. Jorie Graham emerged in the 1980s as a major poet, distinguished for her philosophical depth, her sensuous vision, the grandeur of her style and themes. In a decade of poetry stigmatized for its shrunken ambition, or sidetracked by politics and ideology, she celebrated the spiritual and metaphysical reach of art. In her first book, Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts (1980), Graham limited her meditation primarily to tentative reflections based on natural objects. Erosion (1983) marked a striking maturity for this poet in finding a focus to the roving eye of Hybrids, and in understanding the iconic and even sacramental nature of her mind. Her language in this volume is marked by eloquence and sententious boldness, and she identifies her project more directly with that of monumental artists from the past. While ordered around a passion for mystery, the poems themselves aspire to the unity and completeness of an artifact rather than the residue of a process. Whatever twists of thought may arise in the poems end in a tied, integrated imagery, a tense unity.
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Ascent into Limbo
(summary)
In the following review of Materialism, Vendler discusses Graham's rhythm structure and the connection between structure and subject in these poems.
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What's Happening?
(summary)
In the following review of The Dream of the Unified Field, Sacks praises Graham as a writer who is pushing poetry in new directions.
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Review of Materialism
(summary)
In the excerpt below, Holden praises Graham's use of intellectualism and tone in Materialism.
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Identity, Vision, Style
(summary)
In the review below, Longenbach praises Graham's writing in The Errancy as mature and argues that it is her best work to date.
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Countering Culture
(summary)
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Graham, Jorie (Poetry Criticism)
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Air and Earth: Recent Books by Jorie Graham and Ellen Bryant Voight
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Ulmer offers a favorable assessment of The End of Beauty, stressing the influences on Graham's poetry. Graham's The End of Beauty and Voight's The Lotus Flowers are third books by poets who are embarking on distinguished mid-careers. Their contrasting methods represent divergent strains in contemporary American poetry. Graham's speculation and self-conscious emphasis on process enacting itself on the page derives from Eliot and the post-modernism of Stevens and Ashbery, while Voight's impulse to re-enact the past and inhabit a vital landscape continues a tradition represented by Emerson, Frost, and James Wright. Both books extend and enliven the rich diversity of contemporary poetry in America.
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The Grammar of Glamour: The Poetry of Jorie Graham
(summary)
In the following review, Jarman surveys the first four of Graham's books of poetry: Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts, Erosion, The End of Beauty, and Region of Unlikeness.
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Ad Interim: 2000—A Delayed Reading Lightly Attended
(summary)
In the following review, Isaacson discusses Materialism, commenting on Graham's incorporation of earlier material—her own, as well as others'—into the poems in this volume.
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Iconoclasm in the Poetry of Jorie Graham
(summary)
In the following essay, Shifrer explores the influence of painters—their processes as well as their paintings themselves—on Graham's poetry.
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The Honest Work of the Body: Jorie Graham's Erosion
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In the following essay, Hudgins examines several poems from Graham's second book, Erosion, and considers how her work has evolved psychologically and philosophically.
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Kite's Body, and Beyond
(summary)
In the following review of The Dream of the Unified Field, Irwin traces Graham's development and investigates recurring themes in her works.
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Jorie Graham's Big Hunger
(summary)
In the following essay, Longenbach provides an in-depth examination of Graham's first four books of poems, exploring the relationship between language and sensation in these works.
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Jorie Graham and the Politics of Transcendence
(summary)
In the following essay, Quinn views Graham's poetic works as following a tradition that seeks to capture moments of Emersonian transcendence, while at the same time attempting to remain involved with the political.
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Critical Mass: Jorie Graham and James Tate
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In the following review, Ramke offers a comparison of Graham's and James Tate's poetry, observing that both are uniquely American yet “seem sometimes to belong to no nation, no particular place.”
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Jorie Graham's ‘New Way of Looking’
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In the following essay, Spiegelman discusses Graham's poetics in her earlier books, specifically how she experiments with ways of viewing the world.
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Jorie Graham: Living in the World
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In the following essay, Molesworth explores Graham's poetics and detects both lyric and philosophical strains in her works.
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About Jorie Graham
(summary)
In the following essay, Casper provides a short profile of Graham through a discussion of several of her books.
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To Feel an Idea
(summary)
In the following review, Klink offers a detailed examination of several of the poems from Graham's 2001 book, Swarm.
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Jorie Graham's The End of Beauty and a Fresh Look at Modernism
(summary)
In the following essay, Gardner focuses on three modernist poems by Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, and T. S. Eliot, and the ways that Graham engages them in the poems in The End of Beauty.
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Air and Earth: Recent Books by Jorie Graham and Ellen Bryant Voight
(summary)
- Further Reading