Stephen J. Adams - The Patriot Poets

THE PATRIOT POETS

THE PATRIOT POETS

American Odes, Progress Poems, and the State of the Union

STEPHEN J. ADAMS

McGill-Queens University Press

Montreal & Kingston London Chicago

McGill-Queens University Press 2018

ISBN 978-0-7735-5471-9 (cloth)

ISBN 978-0-7735-5472-6 (paper)

ISBN 978-0-7735-5594-5 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-0-7735-5595-2 (ePUB)

Legal deposit fourth quarter 2018

Bibliothque nationale du Qubec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Funding has also been received from the J.B. Smallman Research Fund and the Department of English of Western University.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. Lan dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de lart dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Adams, Stephen, 1945, author

The patriot poets : American odes, progress poems, and the state of the union / Stephen J. Adams.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-0-7735-5471-9 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-7735-5472-6 (paper). ISBN 978-0-7735-5594-5 (ePDF). ISBN 978-0-7735-5595-2 (ePUB)

1. Odes, American History and criticism. 2. American poetry 19th century History and criticism. 3. American poetry 20th century History and criticism. I. Title.

This book was typeset by True to Type in 10.5/13 Sabon

For Ruth

Amo ergo sum, and in just that proportion

Pound, Canto 80

Contents

Acknowledgments

I am privileged to have benefitted from the help of many individuals through the development and writing of this project. First among them I must name my Western University colleague Joseph Schuster. Mentors are generally thought to be older than their instructees, but in this case Joe Schuster has been a gracious younger mentor to an older colleague, unsparingly generous with his time and consideration. Other colleagues at Western who have made particular contributions are Anderson Araujo (now at Okanagan University), Brad Bannon (now at Tennessee), David Bentley, Chris Brown, Steven Bruhm, Jeremy Colangelo (now at Hunan Normal University), Tim Dejong (now at Baylor), Miranda Green-Barteet, Alison Lee, Mark McDayter, Riley McDonald, Zeinab McHeimech, Allan Pero, Thy Phu, Michael Sloane, Kim Stanley, Thomas Stuart, Leon Surette, and the late Lisa Zeitz. I am also pleased to thank Michael Milde, Jan Plug, and Bryce Traister (now at Okanagan) in their administrative roles.

Elsewhere, I have special debts to Martin Griffin at the University of Tennessee; to Kurt Heinzelman, editor of Texas Studies in Literature and Language; to Demetres Tryphonopoulos, Brandon University, my long-suffering collaborator in Pound studies; as well as to Bernd Engler at the University of Tbingen, Germany, for his encouragement at the very beginning of this work. My gratitude extends to two anonymous readers for MQUP, the one who approved my work from the first, and the other whose acute critique led to revisions and additions, which made this a much better book. In addition, I am grateful for various kindnesses to Betsy Erkkila, Sarah Ehrens, Christopher Hbert, Nicholas Hudson, Kenneth Price, Thomas Travisano, Thomas Underwood, and Alan Wald.

I have many debts to students in the past decade or more who have not only witnessed my fumbling efforts to formulate the arguments of the following pages but who have also contributed in many different ways: Meghan Adams, John Allaster, Erin Aspenlieder, Michelle Banks, April Brander, Aiden Brydon, Chris Bundock (University of Regina), Donald Calabrese, Steve Carter, Michael Choi, Darren Danylyshen, Chad Dietrich, Coby Dowdell (Kings University College), David Drysdale, Jantina Ellens, Robin Feenstra, Trent Gill, Kevin Godbout, Ellen Gregory, Jenica Groot-Nibelinck, Mike Gyssels, Mark Henshaw, Dimitri Karkoulis, Karla Landells, Brenda McQuaid, Michelle Muller, Sarah Pesce, George Ramos, Mark Rhyno, Taylor Richardson, Cameron Riddell, Logan Rohde, Derek Shank, Michael Sloane, Jeremy Smith, Philip Spurrell, Julie-Ann Stodolny, Joel Szaefer, Peter Szuban, Katherine Sykes, Crystal Taylor, Nathan Tebokkel, Douglas Vincent, Steve Voyce, and Karen Yu.

The staff at McGill-Queens have been supportive at every stage since I first submitted my work. They are too many to name, but I must include Jonathan Crago, editor in chief; Ryan Van Huijstee, managing editor; Mark Abley for his initial receptivity; Kathleen Fraser; K. Joanne Richardson; Jeremy John Parker for his cover design; and many others behind the scenes, including Elena Goranescu, Rob Mackie, Andrew Pinchefsky, and Jacqui Davis.

A special thank you to Leanne Trask, Viv Foglton, and Beth McIntosh for many years of assistance in the English Department at Western and to the librarians on the front desk and behind the scenes at D.B. Weldon Library.

And, finally, to my wife Ruth, our children Barbara and Richard, and to the rest of my immediate family for their unfailing patient support through my periods of absence, distraction, and frustration during the preparation of this book.

have been slightly revised from previous appearances in Texas Studies in Language and Literature 55 (December 2013) and in Stories of Nation: Fictions, Politics, and the American Experience, edited by Martin Griffin and Christopher Hebert (Nashville: University of Tennessee Press, 1917), respectively.

We believe that the use of material under copyright quoted in this book falls under provisions for fair use. We are grateful, however, to the following for their permission: material by Allen Ginsberg reprinted with permission of HarperCollins Publishers; material by Archibald MacLeish reprinted with permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; material by Muriel Rukeyser reprinted with permission of ICM Partners and the Muriel Rukeyser estate; material by Genevieve Taggard reprinted with the permission of Judith Bent Richardson; material by Allen Tate reprinted with permission of Farrar Straus Giroux; material by Melvin B. Tolson reprinted with permission of University of Virginia Press.

Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.

John Adams, Letter to Benjamin Rush (18 April 1808)

Its safe to say, I think, that the American experiment is at an end. No, America might not be finished as in civil war and secession. But it is clearly at an end in three ways. First, to the world, as a serious democracy. Second, to itself, as a nation with dignity and self-respect. Third, its potential lies in ruins. Even if authoritarianism is toppled tomorrow, the problems of falling life expectancy, an imploding middle class, skyrocketing inequality, and so on, wont be Thus, in America today, there are no broad, genuine, or accessible civilizing mechanisms left. As a simple example, Americas best universities churn out hedge-fund traders.