David Melnick
Encyclopedia
David Melnick is an American poet. Melnick has written four books of poetry to date: Eclogs (1972); PCOET (1975); Men in Aida, Book One (1983), and A Pin's Fee.
Melnick is commonly regarded as a language poet
. Excerpts from PCOET and Men in Aida
appeared in Ron Silliman's groundbreaking anthology In the American Tree.
Melnick's work PCOET is a collection of short poems apparently rendered in a nonsense language with only the slightest resemblance to English; Men in Aida is a homophonic translation
of Book One of Homer
's Iliad
into a farcical bathhouse scenario, suggesting underlying homoeroticism in the original text.
Melnick is commonly regarded as a language poet
Language poets
The Language poets are an avant garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
. Excerpts from PCOET and Men in Aida
Men in Aida
Men in Aida is a homophonic translation of Book One of Homer's Iliad into a farcical bathhouse scenario, perhaps alluding to the homoerotic aspects of ancient Greek culture. It was written by the language poet David Melnick, and is an example of poetic postmodernism....
appeared in Ron Silliman's groundbreaking anthology In the American Tree.
Melnick's work PCOET is a collection of short poems apparently rendered in a nonsense language with only the slightest resemblance to English; Men in Aida is a homophonic translation
Homophonic translation
Homophonic translation renders a text in one language into a near-homophonic text in another language, usually with no attempt to preserve the original meaning of the text. In one homophonic translation, for example, English "sat on a wall" is rendered as French "s'étonne aux Halles" 'is...
of Book One of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
into a farcical bathhouse scenario, suggesting underlying homoeroticism in the original text.