Objectivist+Poetics

**Objectivist Poetics** is a mode of poetry construction and composition that is often associated with objectivism, though there is a difference from Objectivist Poetics. Objectivist Poetics favors metonomy over metaphor, as metaphor, they believed, puts false association between the object and the other compared thing, ultimately doing injustice to the objects being compared when metonomy could have been to explain the objects just as they are. Poets associated with this movement are Robert Creeley, William Carlos Williams, Denise Levertov, and the larger pool of objectivist poets.

=Objectivist Poetics =

Objectivism as a poetic technique focuses on the poetic structure that can be perceived as a whole including the aspects of how the poem was constructed, and instead of focusing on an object in the poem, the poem itself is the object. The poem is not a symbol of nature, but a part of it in its physical presence as ink and paper and idea. It is a form of writing that has to do more with the composition of the work than with interpretation of the work. Louis Zukofsky, one of the main objectivist poets in America during the 1930s, said objectification is a way of "[composing] a distinct perceptual field which brings the rays of an object to a focus" (qtd. in Altieri 6), as well, "the apprehension satisfied completely as to the appearance of the art form as an object" (6). It is the middle ground between the perceiver and the perceived, being perception. Objectivism takes from both the perceiver and the perceived to cause an understanding with things as they exist within the composition of the poem. The composition of the poem allows for nothing to be undeclared within the writing; everything exists within the poem, so there is nothing outside of the poem.

 Because of the composition of the poem, there is no need for metaphors in objectivist poetics. The way the poem is composed syntactically allows for the melody of the poem to occur. The melody and composition of writing brings the poem to life, taking place across the lines. Therefore, the lines of the poem, not the use of metaphors, create a certain "vehicle of understanding and action," as stated in Charles Altieri's essay, "The Objectivist Tradition". This understanding allows the reader to have an experience with the poem in the exact moment it is taking place. Through interactions between the mind and words that require no abstract meaning beyond what is being said, which is denotative. Denotation is the literal meaning of words, there is no outside meaning or suggestion.

 Objectivist poets write with the tenants of objectivism in mind. Though the eye may experience the objects the poet in turn writes about, the author is only able to exist as a perceiver because of the objects themselves, in other words I'm "made of what I see." A poem in this sense is a reflection within a world that is wholly cluttered with objects of varying value, and we cannot exist without our materials around us. In the words of George Oppen, "we awaken at once to objects and ourselves." Objectivst poetics refrains from metaphor which only wrenches objects out of their context and instead employs @metonymy. Metonymy is considered a more lateral comparison, mirroring the way the world is built in the poetry which attempts to capture our existence.  In contrast in terms of perspective, symbolist poetics tries to see beyond the poem and words by allowing for meditation and reflection outside the poem, like a "mirage of seeing". Yet, objectivist poetics seeks to use something concrete by relating what is seen or felt in the poem and by using great detail to do so.

=Examples of Objectivist Poetry =

 **For You**  by Robert Creeley  Like watching rings extend in water  this time of life.

 -Relation to Objectivism Poetics:  In //For You// Creeley works within the "objectivist mode". The rings extending within the water vividly portray the timeline of life and its liquid, ever-changing and moving consistency. Additionally called to mind is the ring which develops in a tree's trunk for each year of life, which plays further into the image and feeling of time progression physically embodied in nature. He does not say this, he shows it in writing objects in the moment, as they are, in all their essence. The poem creates a sustained moment in time, as, according to the ideas of Objectivist Poetics, objects are shown how they are and play into a real and physical moment, which exists in the imagined plane of the poem as well as here on Earth on ink and paper.

 **Gemini** //(excerpt)//  by Robert Creeley  Two eyes, two hands-- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> in one two are given.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The words <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> are messages

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> from another, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> not understood but given. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> **.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Neither one, nor the other, nor of a brother--but in <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> the one, two, restless, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> confined to a place of ruled

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> by a moon, and another one <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> with messages, rather, sequences

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> of words that are not to be understood <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> but somehow given to a world.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> All this dances in a room, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> two by two, but alone.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> **My Life by Water** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> by Lorine Niedecker

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> My life

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> by water—

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Hear <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> spring's

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> first frog

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> or board <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> out on the cold

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> ground

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> giving <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Muskrats

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> gnawing

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> doors <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> to wild green

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> arts and letters

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Rabbits <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> raided

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> my lettuce

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> One boat <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> two—

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> pointed toward

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> my shore <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> thru birdstart

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> wingdrip

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> weed-drift <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> of the soft

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> and serious—

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Water

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Relation to Objectivist Poetics: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> //My Life by Water// does not use metaphor to conjure images in the reader's mind, but metonymy. In the lines "Hear/spring's/first frog", images are conjured that relate to the coming or beginning of Spring, for example freshness and the anticipation of renewal and rebirth that the season brings. She writes "first frog" instead of what would make //more// sense to most readers, "first fog", which calls two things to mind-- first of course frogs leaping about a flourishing pond and tadpoles--and a fog, which calls to mind the fog that settles over ponds and also relates to the cool freshness of water that this poem exudes. An emphasis is placed on the objects in the poem, and those objects add to the overall feelings and images of the poem as opposed to relying on unrelated images and comparisons (metaphors) to get the desired effect. Niedecker keeps the reader in the moment of the poem through the experience of each object, each an experience in itself //as itself.// In the words of Charles Altieri, "To do so articulates a field where one can think with things as they exist"

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Key Figures** = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Objectivist poets of note//

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Charles Reznikoff <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding-right: 10px;"> George Oppen <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding-right: 10px;"> Carl Rakosi <span style="background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding-right: 10px;">

<span style="cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Lorine Niedecker <span style="cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> William Carlos Williams <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding-right: 10px;"> Basil Bunting <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Louis Zukofsky <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**External Links** = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sample poems //

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> [|Charles Reznikoff: "Meditations on the Fall and Winter Holidays"] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> [|George Oppen: "If it All Went Up in Smoke"] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> [|Carl Rakosi: "Time to Kill"] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> [|Lorine Niedecker collected works] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> [|William Carlos Williams: "Spring and All (By the road to the contagious hospital)"] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Basil Bunting: "Coda" <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Louis Zukofsky: "Jaunt"

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">References =

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