New Formalism
Encyclopedia
New Formalism is a late-20th and early 21st century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical
and rhyme
d verse.
issue of the AWP Newsletter, which was an attack on what was perceived as a movement returning to traditional poetic forms; the article accused the movement's poets not only of political conservatism but also yuppie materialism. New Formalism was a reaction against various perceived deficiencies in the practice of contemporary poets. In his 1987
piece "Notes on the New Formalism," Dana Gioia
wrote: "the real issues presented by American poetry in the Eighties will become clearer: the debasement of poetic language; the prolixity of the lyric; the bankruptcy of the confessional mode; the inability to establish a meaningful aesthetic for new poetic narrative and the denial of a musical texture in the contemporary poem. The revival of traditional forms will be seen then as only one response to this troubling situation."
as exemplified in the work of T. S. Eliot
and Ezra Pound
, and the widespread appearance of free verse
in the early decades of the 20th century, many poets chose to continue working predominantly in traditional forms, such as those poets in America sometimes associated with the New Criticism
, including John Crowe Ransom
, Allen Tate
, Anthony Hecht
, and Richard Wilbur
. During the 1960s, with a surge of interest in Confessional poetry, publication of formal poetry became increasingly unfashionable. The emergence of the Language poets
in the 1970s was one reaction to the predominance of the informal confessional lyric. But language poetry was another step away from the traditions of metre and rhyme, and was seen by some as widening the divide between poetry and its public.
's The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics in 1968
. In the early 1970s X. J. Kennedy
started publishing the short-lived magazine Counter/Measures which was devoted to the use of traditional form in poetry. A few other editors around this time were sympathetic to formal poetry, but the mainstream was against rhyme and meter.
One of the first rumbles of the conflict that was to provide the impetus to create New Formalism as a specific movement, came with the publication in 1977 of an issue of the Mississippi Review called 'Freedom and Form: American Poets Respond'. The late 1970s saw the publication of a few collections by poets working in traditional forms, including Robert B. Shaw's Comforting the Wilderness, (1977), Charles Martin's Room for Error, (1978) and Timothy Steele
's Uncertainties and Rest (1979). In 1980
Mark Jarman
and Robert McDowell started the small magazine The Reaper
to promote narrative and formal poetry. In 1981
Jane Greer
launched Plains Poetry Journal, which published new work in traditional forms. In 1984
McDowell started Story Line Press which has since published some New Formalist poets. The Reaper ran for ten years. Frederick Feirstein
's Expansive Poetry (1989
) gathered various essays on the New Formalism and the related movement New Narrative
, under the umbrella term 'Expansive Poetry
'.
From 1983 the onset of "neoformalism" was noted in the annual poetry roundups in the yearbooks of The Dictionary of Literary Biography, and through the mid 1980s heated debates on the topic of formalism were carried on in several journals. 1986
saw the publication of Vikram Seth
's The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse and the anthology Strong Measures: Contemporary American Poetry in Traditional Forms
In 1990
William Baer
started The Formalist
and the first issue contained poems by, among others, Howard Nemerov
, Richard Wilbur
, and Donald Justice
. The magazine ran twice a year for fifteen years, with the fall/winter 2004 issue being the last. The Formalist was succeeded by Measure: A Review of Formal Poetry, which is published biannually by the University of Evansville.
with a special focus on formal poetry and New Formalism. Each year the Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award
is awarded as part of the conference.
By the end of the 20th century, poems in traditional forms were once again being published more widely. The effects of the movement have been observed in the broader domain of general poetry: a survey of successive editions of various general anthologies showed an increase in the number of villanelle
s included in the post-mid-'80s editions. The publication of books concerned with poetic form has also increased. Lewis Turco
's Book of Forms from 1968 was revised and reissued in 1986 under the title New Book of Forms.
Interest in the movement and in formal techniques continues, as the West Chester conference demonstrates, but the movement is not without its detractors. In the November/December 2003 issue of P. N. Review
, N. S. Thompson wrote: "While movements do need a certain amount of bombast to fuel interest, they have to be backed up by a certain artistic success. In hindsight, the movement seems to be less of a poetic revolution and more a marketing campaign."
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
and rhyme
Rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...
d verse.
Origins and intentions
The term 'New Formalism' was first used in the article 'The Yuppie Poet' in the May 19851985 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* The term "New Formalism" was first used in the article "The Yuppie Poet" in the May 1985 issue of the AWP Newsletter in an attack on the poetry movement...
issue of the AWP Newsletter, which was an attack on what was perceived as a movement returning to traditional poetic forms; the article accused the movement's poets not only of political conservatism but also yuppie materialism. New Formalism was a reaction against various perceived deficiencies in the practice of contemporary poets. In his 1987
1987 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Charles Bukowski, fictionalised as alter ego Henry Chinaski, becomes the subject of the film Barfly starring Mickey Rourke....
piece "Notes on the New Formalism," Dana Gioia
Dana Gioia
-Poetry:It was as a poet that Gioia first began to attract widespread attention in the early 1980s, with frequent appearances in The Hudson Review, Poetry, and The New Yorker. In the same period, he published a number of essays and book reviews...
wrote: "the real issues presented by American poetry in the Eighties will become clearer: the debasement of poetic language; the prolixity of the lyric; the bankruptcy of the confessional mode; the inability to establish a meaningful aesthetic for new poetic narrative and the denial of a musical texture in the contemporary poem. The revival of traditional forms will be seen then as only one response to this troubling situation."
Background
Despite the formal innovations of ModernismModernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
as exemplified in the work of T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
and Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
, and the widespread appearance of free verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
in the early decades of the 20th century, many poets chose to continue working predominantly in traditional forms, such as those poets in America sometimes associated with the New Criticism
New Criticism
New Criticism was a movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic...
, including John Crowe Ransom
John Crowe Ransom
John Crowe Ransom was an American poet, essayist, magazine editor, and professor.-Life:...
, Allen Tate
Allen Tate
John Orley Allen Tate was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.-Life:...
, Anthony Hecht
Anthony Hecht
Anthony Evan Hecht was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, and the Holocaust being recurrent themes in his work.-Early years:Hecht was born in New York...
, and Richard Wilbur
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....
. During the 1960s, with a surge of interest in Confessional poetry, publication of formal poetry became increasingly unfashionable. The emergence of the Language poets
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...
in the 1970s was one reaction to the predominance of the informal confessional lyric. But language poetry was another step away from the traditions of metre and rhyme, and was seen by some as widening the divide between poetry and its public.
Early history
An early sign of a revival of interest in traditional poetic forms was the publication of Lewis TurcoLewis Turco
Lewis P. Turco , is an American poet, teacher, and writer of fiction and non-fiction. Turco is an advocate for Formalist poetry in the United States.-Life and work:...
's The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics in 1968
1968 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* The Belfast Group, a grouping of poets in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which was started in 1963 in poetry, lapsed in 1966 when founder Philip Hobsbaum left for Glasgow, is reconstituted this year by...
. In the early 1970s X. J. Kennedy
X. J. Kennedy
X. J. Kennedy is a poet, translator, anthologist, editor, and writer of children's literature and student textbooks on English literature and poetry.-Beginnings and academic career:...
started publishing the short-lived magazine Counter/Measures which was devoted to the use of traditional form in poetry. A few other editors around this time were sympathetic to formal poetry, but the mainstream was against rhyme and meter.
One of the first rumbles of the conflict that was to provide the impetus to create New Formalism as a specific movement, came with the publication in 1977 of an issue of the Mississippi Review called 'Freedom and Form: American Poets Respond'. The late 1970s saw the publication of a few collections by poets working in traditional forms, including Robert B. Shaw's Comforting the Wilderness, (1977), Charles Martin's Room for Error, (1978) and Timothy Steele
Timothy Steele
Timothy Steele is an American poet and academic. Born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1948, he is a professor of English at California State University, Los Angeles. Some of Steele's early verse appeared in X. J. Kennedy's Counter/Measures in the early seventies. He went on to become a figure in the...
's Uncertainties and Rest (1979). In 1980
1980 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Mark Jarman and Robert McDowell started the small magazine The Reaper to promote narrative and formal poetry....
Mark Jarman
Mark Jarman
Mark F. Jarman is an American poet and critic often identified with the New Narrative branch of the New Formalism; he was co-editor with Robert McDowell of The Reaper throughout the 1980s...
and Robert McDowell started the small magazine The Reaper
The Reaper (magazine)
The Reaper was a United States literary periodical which played an important role in establishing the poetry movements of New Narrative and New Formalism. It was founded in 1980 and ran until 1989; a double issue of numbers 19 and 20 was the last. The Reaper was edited by Robert McDowell and Mark...
to promote narrative and formal poetry. In 1981
1981 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Jane Greer launched Plains Poetry Journal, an advance guard of the New Formalism movement....
Jane Greer
Jane Greer (poet)
Jane Greer is an American poet. In 1981 she founded Plains Poetry Journal, a literary magazine that was an advance guard of the New Formalism movement. In her "Editorial Manifesto," Greer wrote: "Through history, the best poetry has used certain conventions: meter, rhyme, alliteration, assonance,...
launched Plains Poetry Journal, which published new work in traditional forms. In 1984
1984 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:*December 19 - Philip Larkin turns down the British Poet Laureateship, and Ted Hughes becomes Poet Laureate....
McDowell started Story Line Press which has since published some New Formalist poets. The Reaper ran for ten years. Frederick Feirstein
Frederick Feirstein
Frederick Feirstein is an poet, and playwright.He has published eight books of poetry and has had twelve plays produced.His eighth book of poems, Fallout, was published by Word Tech Communications, in May 2008....
's Expansive Poetry (1989
1989 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Dead Poets Society, a film incorporating excerpts from many traditional poets, ending with the title and opening line of Walt Whitman's lament on the death of Abraham Lincoln, "O Captain! My...
) gathered various essays on the New Formalism and the related movement New Narrative
New Narrative
New Narrative is a movement started in San Francisco in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The writers focus on experimenting with the narrative using fragmented stories, meta-text, and other techniques that are traditionally considered more “poetic.” Writing in the New Narrative movement is known for...
, under the umbrella term 'Expansive Poetry
Expansive Poetry
Expansive Poetry is a movement in United States poetry that began in the 1980s. It is an umbrella term coined by Wade Newman for the movements of New Formalism and New Narrative, and the term is controversial even among many of the writers it purports to describe...
'.
From 1983 the onset of "neoformalism" was noted in the annual poetry roundups in the yearbooks of The Dictionary of Literary Biography, and through the mid 1980s heated debates on the topic of formalism were carried on in several journals. 1986
1986 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* New American Writing, an annual literary magazine concentrating on poetry, is founded in Chicago, Illinois....
saw the publication of Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.-Early life:Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 to Leila and Prem Seth in Calcutta...
's The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse and the anthology Strong Measures: Contemporary American Poetry in Traditional Forms
In 1990
1990 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Allen Ginsberg crowned "Majelis King" in Prague on May Day...
William Baer
William Baer
William Baer is an award-winning American writer, editor, translator, and educator.The author of sixteen books, he's a former Fulbright and a Guggenheim fellow, as well as the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts creative writing grant....
started The Formalist
The Formalist
The Formalist: A Journal of Metrical Poetry was a literary periodical, edited by William Baer, which was published twice a year from 1990 to the fall/winter issue of 2004.The Formalist published contemporary, metrical verse...
and the first issue contained poems by, among others, Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov was an American poet. He was twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...
, Richard Wilbur
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....
, and Donald Justice
Donald Justice
Donald Justice was an American poet and teacher of writing. In summing up Justice's career, David Orr has written, "In most ways, Justice was no different from any number of solid, quiet older writers devoted to traditional short poems. But he was different in one important sense: sometimes his...
. The magazine ran twice a year for fifteen years, with the fall/winter 2004 issue being the last. The Formalist was succeeded by Measure: A Review of Formal Poetry, which is published biannually by the University of Evansville.
Current activity
Since 1995, West Chester University has held an annual poetry conferenceWest Chester University Poetry Conference
West Chester University Poetry Conference is an international poetry conference that has been held annually since 1995 at West Chester University, Pennsylvania, United States. It hosts various panel discussions and poetry craft workshops, which focus primarily on formal poetry, narrative poetry,...
with a special focus on formal poetry and New Formalism. Each year the Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award
Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award
The Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award is awarded to scholars who have made a lasting contribution to the art and science of versification. The award was named after the poet, critic, and translator Robert Fitzgerald. It was established in 1999 at the Fifth Annual West Chester University Poetry...
is awarded as part of the conference.
By the end of the 20th century, poems in traditional forms were once again being published more widely. The effects of the movement have been observed in the broader domain of general poetry: a survey of successive editions of various general anthologies showed an increase in the number of villanelle
Villanelle
A villanelle is a poetic form that entered English-language poetry in the 19th century from the imitation of French models. The word derives from the Italian villanella from Latin villanus . A villanelle has only two rhyme sounds...
s included in the post-mid-'80s editions. The publication of books concerned with poetic form has also increased. Lewis Turco
Lewis Turco
Lewis P. Turco , is an American poet, teacher, and writer of fiction and non-fiction. Turco is an advocate for Formalist poetry in the United States.-Life and work:...
's Book of Forms from 1968 was revised and reissued in 1986 under the title New Book of Forms.
Interest in the movement and in formal techniques continues, as the West Chester conference demonstrates, but the movement is not without its detractors. In the November/December 2003 issue of P. N. Review
P. N. Review
Launched as Poetry Nation, a twice-yearly hardback, in 1973, PN Review - now an A4 paperback - began quarterly publication in 1976 and has appeared six times a year since 1981...
, N. S. Thompson wrote: "While movements do need a certain amount of bombast to fuel interest, they have to be backed up by a certain artistic success. In hindsight, the movement seems to be less of a poetic revolution and more a marketing campaign."
New Formalist canon
The 2004 West Chester Conference had a by-invitation-only critical seminar on 'Defining the Canon of New Formalism', in which the following anthologies were discussed:- Rebel Angels: 25 Poets of the New Formalism edited by Mark JarmanMark JarmanMark F. Jarman is an American poet and critic often identified with the New Narrative branch of the New Formalism; he was co-editor with Robert McDowell of The Reaper throughout the 1980s...
and David MasonDavid Mason (writer)David Mason is an American writer and the Poet Laureate of Colorado.-Life:David Mason was born and raised in Bellingham, Washington. He studied briefly at the Colorado College, but left after one year to work as a fisherman in Alaska. He returned to the college to earn his B.A. in 1978...
, 19961996 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* National Poetry Month was established by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996 as way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States.* The movie Dead Man, written and...
. - The Direction of Poetry: An Anthology of Rhymed and Metered Verse Written in the English Language since 1975, edited by Robert Richman
- A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women, edited by Annie FinchAnnie FinchAnnie Finch is an American poet. She is author of numerous books of poetry as well as poetry translation, poetry anthologies and criticism, opera libretti, and poetic collaborations with visual art, music, theater, and dance. Her writings on poetry address topics including meter and prosody,...
, 1993
See also
- New Formalist, a literary journal
- Mezzo CamminMezzo CamminMezzo Cammin is a semiannual online literary journal devoted to formalist poetry by contemporary women as well as to bring attention back to work that was more famous in previous eras. The journal's title comes from Judith Moffett's poem "Mezzo Cammin", which in turn takes its title from the...
, a journal devoted to formalist poetry by women