Collected ProseThe prose writings of Charles Olson (1910–1970) have had a far-reaching and continuing impact on post-World War II American poetics. Olson's theories, which made explicit the principles of his own poetics and those of the Black Mountain poets, were instrumental in defining the sense of the postmodern in poetry and form the basis of most postwar free verse. The Collected Prose brings together in one volume the works published for the most part between 1946 and 1969, many of which are now out of print. A valuable companion to editions of Olson's poetry, the book backgrounds the poetics, preoccupations, and fascinations that underpin his great poems. Included are Call Me Ishmael, a classic of American literary criticism; the influential essays "Projective Verse" and "Human Universe"; and essays, book reviews, and Olson's notes on his studies. In these pieces one can trace the development of his new science of man, called "muthologos," a radical mix of myth and phenomenology that Olson offered in opposition to the mechanistic discourse and rationalizing policy he associated with America's recent wars in Europe and Asia. Editors Donald Allen and Benjamin Friedlander offer helpful annotations throughout, and poet Robert Creeley, who enjoyed a long and mutually influential relationship with Olson, provides the book's introduction. |
From inside the book
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Page vi
... Poetry and Poets 237 Projective Verse 239 Letter to Elaine Feinstein 250 " On Poets and Poetry " 253 Notes on Language and Theater 256 Against Wisdom as Such 260 Theocritus 265 A Foot Is to Kick With 269 Quantity in Verse , and ...
... Poetry and Poets 237 Projective Verse 239 Letter to Elaine Feinstein 250 " On Poets and Poetry " 253 Notes on Language and Theater 256 Against Wisdom as Such 260 Theocritus 265 A Foot Is to Kick With 269 Quantity in Verse , and ...
Page x
... Poetry / Rare Book Collection , University Li- braries , State University of New York at Buffalo . In particular , we acknowledge the assistance of Richard C. Fyffe ( Storrs ) , Bradley D. Westbrook ( San Diego ) , Kathleen Manwaring ...
... Poetry / Rare Book Collection , University Li- braries , State University of New York at Buffalo . In particular , we acknowledge the assistance of Richard C. Fyffe ( Storrs ) , Bradley D. Westbrook ( San Diego ) , Kathleen Manwaring ...
Page xiv
... Poet's Life notes , " Over the next three days he began work in earnest , producing several thousand words upon which he would eventually build Part One of Call Me Ishmael . " That text appropriately begins this collection . Immediately ...
... Poet's Life notes , " Over the next three days he began work in earnest , producing several thousand words upon which he would eventually build Part One of Call Me Ishmael . " That text appropriately begins this collection . Immediately ...
Page xvi
... poets , those who stay comfortable within a given authority , no matter its character . He shared deeply with John Winthrop a ... poetry ever but such making , the imago mundi , the home we have ? There are few collections of anything as ...
... poets , those who stay comfortable within a given authority , no matter its character . He shared deeply with John Winthrop a ... poetry ever but such making , the imago mundi , the home we have ? There are few collections of anything as ...
Page 19
... poet . But Melville had the will . He was homeless in his land , his society , his self . Logic and classification had ... poetry , language and the care of myth , as Fenollosa says , grew up together . Among the Egyptians Horus was the ...
... poet . But Melville had the will . He was homeless in his land , his society , his self . Logic and classification had ... poetry , language and the care of myth , as Fenollosa says , grew up together . Among the Egyptians Horus was the ...
Contents
ix | |
xi | |
1 | |
On Melville Dostoevsky Lawrence and Pound | 107 |
David Young David Old | 109 |
The Materials and Weights of Herman Melville | 113 |
Equal That Is to the Real Itself | 120 |
Dostoevsky and The Possessed | 126 |
Quantity in Verse and Shakespeares Late Plays | 270 |
Introduction to Robert Creeley | 283 |
Poems 19501960 | 285 |
Paterson Book V | 288 |
Ed Sanders Language | 291 |
Space and Time | 293 |
Introduction to The SutterMarshall Lease | 295 |
A Bibliography on America for Ed Dorn | 297 |
D H Lawrence and the High Temptation of the Mind | 135 |
The Escaped Cock | 138 |
This Is Yeats Speaking | 141 |
GrandPa GoodBye | 145 |
Human Universe | 153 |
Human Universe | 155 |
Footnote to HU lost in the shuffle | 167 |
The Gate and the Center | 168 |
The Resistance | 174 |
Cy Twombly | 175 |
Proprioception | 179 |
Place Names | 200 |
you cant use words | 202 |
The Present Is Prologue | 203 |
The Present Is Prologue | 205 |
Stocking Cap | 208 |
Mr Meyer | 213 |
The Post Office | 217 |
Poetry Poets | 237 |
Projective Verse | 239 |
Letter to Elaine Feinstein | 250 |
On Poets and Poetry | 253 |
Notes on Language and Theater | 256 |
Against Wisdom as Such | 260 |
Theocritus | 265 |
A Foot Is to Kick With | 269 |
Billy the Kid | 311 |
Brooks Adams The New Empire | 315 |
Captain John Smith | 318 |
Five Foot Four but Smith Was a Giant | 322 |
The Contours of American History | 324 |
The Vinland Map Review | 326 |
Other Essays Notes and Reviews | 337 |
Ernst Robert Curtius | 339 |
It Was But It Aint | 342 |
Homer and Bible | 345 |
Bill Snow | 349 |
A House Built by Capt John Somes 1763 | 351 |
The Advantage of Literacy Is That Words Can Be on the Page | 353 |
Review of Eric A Havelocks Preface to Plato | 355 |
A Further Note on the Critical Advantages of Eric Havelocks Preface to Plato | 359 |
Statement for the Cambridge magazine | 360 |
A comprehension a measure that | 361 |
CLEAR SHINING WATER De Vries says | 364 |
Whats Back There | 367 |
The Animate versus the Mechanical and Thought | 368 |
Continuing Attempt to Pull the Taffy off the Roof of the Mouth | 373 |
Abbreviations | 375 |
A Note on Olsons Sources | 377 |
Editors Notes | 379 |
Index | 465 |
Other editions - View all
Collected Prose Charles Olson,Donald Allen,Benjamin Friedlander,Robert Creeley No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
Ahab Ahab's ain't American Billy Budd Black Mountain Black Mountain College Brooks Adams Bulkington Call Me Ishmael Canto Captain century Chapter Charles Olson Christ Cid Corman Clarel D. H. Lawrence damn Dostoevsky Ed Dorn essay fact father Frobenius give Gloucester Greek Hawthorne Herman Melville Hesiod Hittite Homer knew language Lawrence Lear letter live man's matter Maximus means mind Moby-Dick myth Nantucket narrative nature never night notes Pacific Plato play poem poet Poetry Pound present Projective Verse Proprioception prose published reprinted in HU Review Robert Creeley route sense Shakespeare Smith soul space Stavrogin Storrs story syllable thing thought tion took tragedy truth turn University Press Vinland Map White Whale Williams words writing written wrote York
Popular passages
Page 83 - I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. "And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
Page 49 - Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these?
Page 49 - Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens' plagues Have humbled to all strokes : that I am wretched Makes thee the happier : heavens, deal so still ! Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man, That slaves your ordinance, that will not see Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly ; So distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough.
Page 279 - Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait On purpose laid to make the taker mad; Mad in pursuit, and in possession so; Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; A bliss in proof...
Page 245 - If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it ; that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.
Page 81 - Melville, as he always does, began to reason of Providence and futurity, and of everything that lies beyond human ken, and informed me that he had "pretty much made up his mind to be annihilated...
Page 40 - But no reputation that is gratifying to me, can possibly be achieved by either of these books. They are two jobs, which I have done for money — being forced to it, as other men are to sawing wood.
Page 58 - Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my...
Page 74 - All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.
Page 64 - But this august dignity I treat of, is not the dignity of kings and robes, but that abounding dignity which has no robed investiture. Thou shalt see it shining in the arm that wields a pick or drives a spike ; that democratic dignity which, on all hands, radiates without end from God ; Himself...