The Story
Understanding the Black Mountain Poets introduces readers to the experimental school of postwar poetry and the three poets who led its pursuitsCharles Olson, Robert Creeley, and Robert Duncan. While critics debate who should be numbered among the schools members and even what the label Black Mountain implies, Edward Halsey Foster focuses on the firstand foremostof its poets. Conceding that Olson, Creeley, and Duncan were radically different from one another in many respects, Foster argues that they were bound together by their reliance on Ralph Waldo Emerson for the principles that underlie their work.Foster summarizes the historical circumstances that led to the emergence of the Black Mountain school and traces the strain of Emersonian, expressionist poetics that are evident in the schools manifesto. He then devotes individual chapters to the work of Olson, Creeley, and Duncan.
Description
Understanding the Black Mountain Poets introduces readers to the experimental school of postwar poetry and the three poets who led its pursuitsCharles Olson, Robert Creeley, and Robert Duncan. While critics debate who should be numbered among the schools members and even what the label Black Mountain implies, Edward Halsey Foster focuses on the firstand foremostof its poets. Conceding that Olson, Creeley, and Duncan were radically different from one another in many respects, Foster argues that they were bound together by their reliance on Ralph Waldo Emerson for the principles that underlie their work.Foster summarizes the historical circumstances that led to the emergence of the Black Mountain school and traces the strain of Emersonian, expressionist poetics that are evident in the schools manifesto. He then devotes individual chapters to the work of Olson, Creeley, and Duncan.
