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Summary:

When William Carlos Williams said, "It's all in / the sound," when T.S. Eliot hailed the invigorating force of the "auditory imagination," or when Marianne Moore applauded "the clatter and true sound" of Williams's verse, each poet invoked the auditory dimension that bound them together. In this volume the author makes the case for acoustics as the basis of the linkages, kinships, and inter-illuminations of a major twentieth-century literary relationship. Outsiders in their home terrain who nevertheless continued to reach back to their own American vocal identities, Williams, Eliot, and Moore embody a unique lineage that can be traced from their first significant works (1909-1918) to the 1960s. In reconstructing the auditory dimension in the work of the three poets, this book does not neglect the visual text. Whether in the form of Moore's quirky patternings, Eliot's expandable verse-frames, or Williams's springy stanzas, the printed shape on the page is here brought together with the spoken word in vital interplay: the eye-read text cut against by sequential utterance in a restoration of the poetry's full effect. By seeing and hearing the verse at the same moment, together with reading side-by-side discussions of the quarrels, friendships, mutual borrowings, and shared energies of Williams, Eliot, and Moore, the reader gains a new understanding of their individual achievements. By sound and sight, this work takes the reader straight into the physical textures of the finest works by three outstanding figures of twentieth-century American poetry.

Table of Contents:

• Voices of a common ground
• To hew form truly
• Sounding The Waste Land
• Riding the flood
• The animal vernacular
• Quick, said the bird
• A way to the last leaftip
• Selected list of recorded readings by Williams, Eliot, and Moore.

Author/Creator:

Swigg, Richard, 1938- , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Quick, said the bird: Williams, Eliot, Moore, and the spoken word [by Swigg, R.]

Subjects:

Williams, William Carlos, 1883-1963 — Criticism and interpretation

Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965 — Criticism and interpretation

Moore, Marianne, 1887-1972 — Criticism and interpretation

American poetry — 20th century — History and criticism

Oral interpretation of poetry

Williams, William Carlos, 1883-1963

Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965

Moore, Marianne, 1887-1972

1900-1999

American poetry

Criticism and interpretation

Genres:

Literary criticism

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Physical Description:

xxi, 157 pages ; 23 cm

Call Numbers:

PS323.5 .S95 2012

ISBNs:

9781609380793 (pbk., acid-free paper)
1609380797 (pbk., acid-free paper)

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2011039507

OCLC Numbers:

755641008