Louis Zukofsky Summary

If the twentieth century still harbors a major but undiscovered poet, that poet is surely Louis Zukofsky. Not that he has been entirely unrecognized; indeed, early he earned the praise of an older gen... Read more

An American poet, Niedecker focused on the distillation of images and thoughts into concise expression, composing verse known for its stark, vivid imagery, subtle rhythms, and spare language. Although... Read more

An American educator and critic, Ahearn is the author of Zukofsky's "A": An Introduction (1983). In the following essay, he explicates the origins of the collage method evident in... Read more

In the following essay, Comens asserts that Zukofsky's poetry heralds postmodernism through the negation of the absolute. Despite the acknowledged importance of World War I for the beginning... Read more

Rexroth was one of the pioneers in the revival of jazz and poetry in the San Francisco area during the 1940s and 1950s. In his criticism he has examined such varied topics as Greek mythology, the work... Read more

Creeley was one of the originators of the "Black Mountain" school of poetry, along with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, and Denise Levertov. These poets developed the theory of "pro... Read more

Davie is a highly regarded English poet, critic, educator, and translator. During the 1950s he was associated with the Movement, a group of poets who emphasized restrained language, traditional syntax... Read more

Symons has been highly praised for his contributions to the genres of biography and detective fiction. His popular biographies of Charles Dickens, Thomas Carlyle, and his brother A. J. A. Symons are c... Read more

Critical Essay by Burton Raffel As Zukofsky notes in his preface [to Catullus], it is the sound of the Latin which has come to interest him—not however as Latin sound, but as a challenge, a ki... Read more

Critical Essay by Kenneth Cox A bare and unpretentious way of speaking, brevity of phrase and concentration on the matter nearest to hand: such features of a language of survival are those [Louis Zuk... Read more

Critical Essay by Joseph Cary In its wisdom [Zukofsky's] publisher is pushing Hugh Kenner's judgment that "A" is "the most hermetic poem in English, which they will... Read more

Critical Essay by William Harmon [Zukofsky is] the classic eiron described in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism: self-deprecating, seldom vulnerable, artful, given to understatement, modest... Read more