If public acknowledgement were the mark of a poet's success, Louis Zukofsky would be among the most significant writers to elude wide acclaim. Lead theorist of the Objectivist poets, his meticulous approach to crafting poetry resulted in a daunting (though influential) body of work that unfolds in remarkable ways for the diligently engaged reader.
Anyone familiar with Zukofsky's work would likely agree that an attempt to present the gist of his poetics in a short article is an impossible task. By attempting an overview of concerns critical to his poetics, this article (first in a series on the Objectivist poets) hopes only to provide an impetus toward further study of Zukofsky's work and, especially, toward a personal enjoyment of the poet's complex and frequently challenging body of poetry.
A Poet's Voice Implemented in Structure and Sound
What is at stake in Zukofsky's approach to poetry is the Objectified poem: a finished object of art built around individual units of perception and composed in a manner that gives equal semantic weight to sound, meaning, and structure. The poem, in Zukofsky's conception, is a multi-faceted, artistic gesture that engages a world of distinct objects (including significant bodies of traditional thought and artistic practice) as a means of creating a dynamic relationship between poem and reader. While the title Objectivist poet (coined by Zukofsky) immediately recalls the concept of objectivity, it also plays on the poet's objective (to create a finished work that speaks with conviction) as well as the perceptible objects that continue to act within the re-contextualized sphere of a poem.
In the introduction to Louis Zukofsky: Selected Poems, Charles Bernstein calls him "the most formally radical poet to emerge among second-wave modernists" who followed in the wake of earlier innovators like Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein. Zukofsky's wide-ranging approach to poetic form resulted in poems that speak beyond the lexical meaning of words by interweaving each element of the poem's structure into a three-way feedback loop between the poem, its reader, and the complex world in which they both exist. In short, his poetry plays into the dynamics of interrelated contexts whose origins arise not from a poet but from the world itself. It is in the creation of this effect that Zukofsky's "voice" can be most clearly discerned.
Drawing on the Dynamic Attributes of Sincere Perception
Though subjective perception is essential (and inescapable), that subjectivity is no more – and no less – a part of a poem's meaning than any other element of its structure. In Zukofsky's poetry, things of the world are allowed to exist on their own terms and come alive in the context of a finished work. By drawing from the inherent power of real things (as conveyed by words) and the multiple contexts attached to the ongoing existence of these things, the conviction of an objectified poem draws its unlimited strength from the world as it is, not from the limited genius of a poet through whom it is produced.
A poet's challenge is to tap into that strength and structure it in such a way as to communicate beyond the limitations of lexical meaning and subjective preconception. Central to Zukofsky's approach is an unbiased understanding of reality as it unfolds in perception. That lack of bias, which he referred to as sincerity, produces the key elements from which the poem begins to take shape: small units of perception produced in the poem through interrelated patterns of unadorned words.
Beyond the Meaning of Words: Interactive Engagement
The manner in which a poet engages the world and begins to craft a poetic structure is an interactive process between poet, reality, and the words from which the poem is formed. When the poem reaches completion, it becomes objectified: an object of art that acts in the world via its interaction with readers. The next article in this series will examine the dynamics of that interaction as the poem moves beyond the specific, temporal context of its origin and approaches a semblance of timeless universality - without losing the significance of its original context and specific focus.
Next in This Series: Louis Zukofsky's Sincere Perception of Language
Further Reading:
Biographical Information on Louis Zukofsky from Wikipedia
A Biographical Essay by Mark Scroggins
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