Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Martha Fodaski

Critical Essay by Martha Fodaski

SOURCE: “Barker's Esthetic: Dynamic Philosophy,” in George Barker, Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1969, pp. 15-29.

In the following excerpt, Fodaski examines George Barker's literary output, theorizing that much of his poetry inspired the Apocalyptic Poets.

George Barker's poetry discloses a fundamentally Romantic and religious sensibility. Keenly aware of the magic and mystery of language and of the trial and tragedy of human life, his first-person speaker is seer and sinner, apostate and aspiring saint. Questor, prophet, interrogator, supplicant, or critic, he struggles to resolve contradictions between feeling and thought, gratification and guilt, and the beast and god in man. His early (1933-1937) and middle (1938-1949) poetry batters at the dark mysteries of idealism, sexuality, war, and man's spiritual isolation. His later poetry (1950-) is often chastened, sometimes spare and lyrical, sometimes direct and satiric in its impatience with the demons in the modern world or in the human breast. For Barker,...
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