A Matter of Influence

The five poets from this week each have very distinct voices. They aren’t necessarily easy to label, but there is a distinct aura and personality that is present in each one: Robert Frost and his love affair with nature, Carl Sandburg and his brash in-your-face power, e.e. cummings and his instantly recognizable thumbnosing of convention, Dylan Thomas and his intense passion, and the ever-wickedly intelligent and so ahead of her time, Ms. Millay.

Despite this individual distinctiveness, it is inevitable that other poets played a role in influencing their poetry. Without doing major research on their professed influences or knowing who truly cared for whom in the world of poetry, I will look at who they seem to have been influenced by, or with whom they possess similarities.

A poet that wasn’t part of our discussions per se was Carl Sandburg. I particularly enjoyed the two poems of his, for their strength and clarity. In these I see a nod to Walt Whitman, in the “free verse” style that Whitman seemed to bless as an acceptable form. Here Sandburg does it in similar style in terms of free verse (no rhyme or meter) and lengthy lines. There are even repetitions and rhymes at the beginnings of lines, as I noticed in Whitman. This is seen in Sandburg’s “Chicago,” (“Laughing….Bragging….laughing,” begin lines 20, 22, 24, 25). This same style is found in Sandburg’s “Grass” where several lines begin the same, with either “Pile,” “Shovel,” or “And pile.” There is a sense of survival among violence in these two poems, which may or not be similar to Whitman’s, but there is definitely a raw energy that parallels Whitman’s urges.

An obvious similarity discussed this week was that between Gertrude Stein, Dylan Thomas, and e.e. Cummings. Their experimentation with language puts them in familiar company, regardless of other differences. (I must admit that I find Thomas’ and Cummings’ poems to be clearer than Stein’s “Meditations” poem which personally read like rambling to me. Thomas’ and Cummings’ poems seem more focused and purposeful, in that the words form more complete images, despite the odd syntax. For instance, in Stein’s poem I did not get “the point” because I couldn’t capture her thoughts (which I assume is part of the point). But with Cummings’ “anyone lived in a pretty how town,” I feel there is an actual theme presented). I see Stein as a possible influence on these two simply because of their ages and the times in which they lived (she was 20 years older then Cummings and 40 years older than Thomas). Her freedom of expression seems to have unlocked a few doors -- perhaps for these two who enjoyed breaking through the limits of convention.

I would love to say that Edna St. Vincent Millay was influenced by Emily Dickinson, and perhaps she was, but I see a power and primal urge in Millay’s poetry that also reminds me of Whitman. I have read her biography and of course find her utterly fascinating, and I’m aware of her, shall we say, prowess. Her unapologetic attitude of sexual matters in "[I, Being born a Woman and Distressed]" is very similar to Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” For a female poet to write in her voice in the year 1923 was pure chutzpah, which she and Whitman had in spades. I’d be willing to bet that his breakthrough “Leaves of Grass” made an impression on her, in some form.

Until trying to determine a few influences here I hadn’t placed the scope of Whitman’s breakthrough in the world of poetry, but it is quite clear. He laid the groundwork for a freedom in writing that takes many forms.