This pioneering collection of new essays challenges established modes of reading American lyric poetry, by orientating interpretation so that it incorporates an awareness of the book context in which individual poems are embedded. These essays critically explore individual books by Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, Hart Crane, William Carlos Williams, Randall Jarrell, Robert Lowell, Adrienne Rich, Susan Howe, Lyn Hejinian and Jorie Graham, and consider the book as a restrictive, 'binding' concept for Emily Dickinson and some contemporary American poets. 'Rebound 'both provides innovative readings of supposedly familiar poets and books, and also generates critical strategies for renewed engagement with American poetry traditions. As a 'speaking whole' 'Rebound 'addresses a rich variety of topics: intentionality as hermeneutic; the architecture and artefacture of the book; gender identity and the book; the positioning of the book in postmodern poetics; the consequences of textual history for interpretation and reception; and the American poetry book as metonym for nation. Contributors: Domhnall Mitchell, Eldrid Herrington, Charles Altieri, Stephen Matterson, Stephen Wilson, Maria Irene Ramalho De Sousa Santos, Ron Callan, Michael Hinds, Gareth Reeves, Lucy Collins, Justin Quinn, Nerys Williams and Nick Selby. Charles Bernstein's 'The Book as Architecture' is reprinted as an Afterword.
Contents:
Michael HINDS and Stephen MATTERSON: Introduction: A Speaking Whole
1 Domhnall MITCHELL: Binding Emily Dickinson
2 Eldrid HERRINGTON: Fit Compositions: Whitman's Revisions to 'Drum-Taps'
3 Stephen MATTERSON: 'To make it mean me': Narrative Design in 'North of Boston'
4 Stephen WILSON: 'Lustra:' Work and Text
5 Charles ALTIERI: Intentionality as Sensuality in 'Harmonium'
6 Maria Irene RAMALHO DE SOUSA SANTOS: The Accidental 'Bridge: 'Hart Crane's Theory of the Lyric
7 Ron CALLAN: William Carlos Williams's 'An Early Martyr': The Descent Beckons
8 Michael HINDS: The 1955 'Selected Poems:' Randall Jarrell's Book of the Dead
9 Gareth REEVES: It's life in death to be bound, delivered, published': Robert Lowell's Revisions of' Notebook 1967-68'
10 Lucy COLLINS: 'Our lives inseparable': The Contingent World of Adrienne Rich's 'Twenty-One Love Poems'
11 Justin QUINN: Empire, Sublimity, and the Look of Things in Amy Clampitt's 'The Kingfisher'
12 Nerys WILLIAMS: 'What I wanted was nothing to do with monuments': Erring and Lyn Hejinian's 'The Guard'
13 Nick SELBY: Prometheans Unbound: Touching Books in Jorie Graham's 'Swarm 'and Susan Howe's 'Scattering As Behaviour Toward Risk'
Charles BERNSTEIN: Afterword: The Book as Architecture
Notes on Contributors
Index
Contents:
Michael HINDS and Stephen MATTERSON: Introduction: A Speaking Whole
1 Domhnall MITCHELL: Binding Emily Dickinson
2 Eldrid HERRINGTON: Fit Compositions: Whitman's Revisions to 'Drum-Taps'
3 Stephen MATTERSON: 'To make it mean me': Narrative Design in 'North of Boston'
4 Stephen WILSON: 'Lustra:' Work and Text
5 Charles ALTIERI: Intentionality as Sensuality in 'Harmonium'
6 Maria Irene RAMALHO DE SOUSA SANTOS: The Accidental 'Bridge: 'Hart Crane's Theory of the Lyric
7 Ron CALLAN: William Carlos Williams's 'An Early Martyr': The Descent Beckons
8 Michael HINDS: The 1955 'Selected Poems:' Randall Jarrell's Book of the Dead
9 Gareth REEVES: It's life in death to be bound, delivered, published': Robert Lowell's Revisions of' Notebook 1967-68'
10 Lucy COLLINS: 'Our lives inseparable': The Contingent World of Adrienne Rich's 'Twenty-One Love Poems'
11 Justin QUINN: Empire, Sublimity, and the Look of Things in Amy Clampitt's 'The Kingfisher'
12 Nerys WILLIAMS: 'What I wanted was nothing to do with monuments': Erring and Lyn Hejinian's 'The Guard'
13 Nick SELBY: Prometheans Unbound: Touching Books in Jorie Graham's 'Swarm 'and Susan Howe's 'Scattering As Behaviour Toward Risk'
Charles BERNSTEIN: Afterword: The Book as Architecture
Notes on Contributors
Index