LLC Poetics Research Events: Eric Lindstrom

About the event

Introducing the American poet James Schuyler at his first-ever public reading in 1988, Schuyler’s friend John Ashbery marveled that “He makes sense, dammit,” thus characterising Schuyler as a sense-making communicator against the pervasively enigmatic, evasive character found in Ashbery’s own poetry.

Ashbery’s introduction also claims Schuyler’s writing is “about as far from Wordsworth as you can get.” One imagines the antipodes of Wordsworth to be avant-garde poetry, but this talk goes the other way in order to wager that there is some resonance and benefit in thinking about aspects of Schuyler’s poetic vision as impossibly pre-romantic.

The talk will explore the sense-making, perspicuous qualities of James Schuyler’s attention and writing, using two frames: by closely examining Schuyler’s (most grammatical) manuscript advice found in a 1969 letter to fellow “New York School” poet Kenneth Koch; and by arranging a critical cento of the six qualities that Hugh Blair highlights under Style — Perspicuity and Precision, in his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres with representative passages in Schuyler’s poetry.

How to attend

This event is open to all, and free to attend. No registration is required, simply turn up on the day.

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We offer two PhDs: one in English Literature; and one in Creative Writing. Working with colleagues in LLC and across the wider University, we are able to support research which crosses boundaries between disciplines and/or languages.