The New York School Poets first appeared in the last 1940’s to the early 1950’s. They drew inspiration from the avant-garde which represents a pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm. These poets were innovative and experimental. Their subject matter was light, violent, or observational. They often wrote in a direct and spontaneous stream of consciousness. Vivid imagery was also found in their works quite often. They favored wit, humor, and irony as literary techniques.
The creators of this movement included John Ashberry, Kenneth Koch, Frank O’Hara, and James Schuyler. The New York School Poets took their basis from Abstract Expressionists. They found the mind of the poet could be the subject of the poem. This led to the idea of acceptance to be less of a priority. Strange juxtapositions, pseudo translations, and collages soon became part of their poetry styles. They also drew influence from both cubists and surrealists. Apollinarie taught the poets that a poem could come from snatches of overheard conversations, or from random lines in novels. Poems didn’t have to make sense in a conventional way. They could discover their sense as they went along.
The New York School poets knew that they did not have to copy the past but could adjust the tradition of it to their own unique style. Their poems often has an anti political element to them. They wanted to accomplish something with language that had never been done before. It was the idea that art could be about the car parked outside one’s house or one’s feelings about the government.
In the poems that I read my original thoughts of the poets were much like the history I read on them. I noticed the different languages that the poems were in such as in “Ma Provence”. Also a lot of poems were very vivid in the way they presented themselves, for example “What You Wearing”. The first thing I noticed was that the poems were not conventional. Some of them with the weird spacing did not even make sense. After reading the history of the poets I found that this was their intention. Even though I am far from an expert on poetry I truly did enjoy reading this poems. It seemed more real than other poems I read through out school. Literature should make you think and wonder about what you just read. I found myself doing this as I read through the poems. It was a lot like watching a really good movie that when you leave the theater you feel like you want to re think your place in the world.
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2 comments:
"They favored wit, humor, and irony as literary techniques."
True. Try applying this knowledge to your reading of the poems. It is exactly this wit, humor, and irony that is operating in Koch's poem "You Were Wearing" though you didn't look for it.
In other words, apply your understanding of the poetry movement/school to your reading of the poems.
So many of these poets loved films & wrote about them frequently. (O'Hara's poem that begins "Lana Turner has collapsed!" comes to mind, as does Clark Coolidge's poem "Movies.) So your final line is very appropriate and also, perhaps, an excellent way of defining NY School poetry: "It was a lot like watching a really good movie that when you leave the theater you feel like you want to re think your place in the world."
Well put.
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