Wikipedia

A. R. Ammons

Archibald Randolph Ammons(February 18, 1926 – February 25, 2001) was an Americanpoetand professor of English atCornell University.Ammons published nearly thirty collections of poems in his lifetime.[1]Revered for his impact on Americanromantic poetry,Ammons received several major awards for his work, including twoNational Book Awards for Poetry,one in 1973 forCollected Poemsand another in 1993 forGarbage.[1][2]

A. R. Ammons
Ammons in 1998
Ammons in 1998
Born(1926-02-18)February 18, 1926
nearWhiteville, North Carolina
DiedFebruary 25, 2001(2001-02-25)(aged 75)
Ithaca, New York
Occupation
  • Poet
  • columnist
  • essayist
NationalityAmerican
EducationWake Forest University
University of California, Berkeley

Poetic themes

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Literary critics have associated Ammons with earlier poets of the Americanromantic tradition,such asRalph Waldo EmersonandWalt Whitman.[2]In line with these romantic roots, Ammons's poetry explores the individual soul through its connection to quotidian life and the natural world.[2]Nevertheless, Ammons exhibits several qualities that distinguish him from his peers and predecessors. With a deep knowledge of natural phenomena, Ammons is noted for wielding a wide lexicon of scientific terms.[3]He is also regarded for his witty––and sometimes coarse–humor, which balances out the gravity of his transcendentalist themes.[3]

Life

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Ammons grew up on a tobacco farm nearWhiteville, North Carolina,in the southeastern part of the state. He served as a sonar operator in the U.S. Navy during World War II, stationed on board theUSSGunason,a destroyer escort.[4]After the war, Ammons attendedWake Forest University,majoring in biology. Graduating in 1949, he served as a principal and teacher at Hattaras Elementary School later that year and also married Phyllis Plumbo.[5]He received an M.A. in English from theUniversity of California, Berkeley.[6]

In 1964, Ammons joined the faculty ofCornell University,eventually becoming Goldwin Smith Professor of English and Poet in Residence. He retired from Cornell in 1998.[7][8]His students who went on to achieve acclaim as poets includeAlice Fulton,Ann Loomis Silsbee,and Jerald Bullis.[9]

Ammons had been a longtime resident of theSouth Jerseycommunities ofNorthfield,Ocean CityandMillville,when he wroteCorsons Inletin 1962.[10][11]

Ammons at Cornell University

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When Ammons arrived at Cornell University in 1964 to teach creative writing, he had not yet finished his master's degree at the University of California, Berkeley.[12]While somewhat self-conscious about his lack of academic pedigree compared to his colleagues, Ammons established himself quickly by completing and publishing six well-received volumes and earning tenure in 1969.[13]Ammons met literary criticHarold Bloom,who visited Cornell in 1968 as a fellow of the Society for the Humanities.[13]Bloom is often credited with elevating Ammons's reputation in his early career, and the two maintained a lifelong relationship, frequently corresponding on both personal and literary subjects.[13]Ammons also developed a close relationship with poetRobert Morgan,who joined the Cornell English Department 1971 and remained there alongside Ammons for nearly three decades.[14]Both from North Carolina, Ammons and Morgan bonded over their similar upbringings; and though they embraced distinct poetic styles, the two poets praised each other's work throughout their careers.[14]

In step with his thematic focus on nature, Ammons drew inspiration for his work from the surrounding landscape ofIthaca, New York.His poems "Cascadilla Falls" and "Triphammer Bridge" pay tribute to outdoor landmarks in the area.[15]

Awards

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During the five decades of his poetic career, Ammons was the recipient of many awards and citations. Among his major honors are the 1973 and 1993 U.S.National Book Awards(forCollected Poems, 1951-1971and forGarbage);[16][17]theWallace Stevens Awardfrom theAcademy of American Poets(1998); and aMacArthur Fellowshipin 1981, the year the award was established.[7][18]

Ammons's other awards include a 1981National Book Critics CircleAward forA Coast of Trees;[19]a 1993Library of CongressRebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry forGarbage;the 1975Bollingen PrizeforSphere;the Poetry Society of America'sRobert FrostMedal; theRuth Lilly Prize;and fellowships from theGuggenheim Foundationand theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters.[20]He was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 1978.[21]

Poetic style

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Ammons commonly writes in two- or three-line stanzas, in which lines are unrhymed and stronglyenjambed.[22]Some of Ammons's poems are as short as one to two lines—a form known asmonostich.[23]Others, like Ammons's book-length poemsSphere,Tape for the Turn of the Year,andGarbage,are hundreds of lines long.[24]

Ammons is noted for his idiosyncratic, minimalist approach to punctuation.[2]The colon is Ammons "signature" punctuation mark, which he employs in many contexts to divide clauses while delaying a definitive end.[22]Leery of terminal punctuation, Ammons avoids ending poems with periods. Instead, some poems end in ellipses, or in no punctuation at all.[22]

Bibliography

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Poetry

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  • Ommateum, with Doxology.Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1955. Reprinted, with Preface by Roger Gilbert, Cornell University, by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York - London, 2006.ISBN978-0-393-33054-0(paperback)
  • Expressions of Sea Level.Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1964.
  • Corsons Inlet.Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1965. Reprinted by Norton, 1967.ISBN0-393-04463-7
  • Tape for the Turn of the Year.Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1965. Reprinted by Norton, 1972.ISBN0-393-00659-X
  • Northfield Poems.Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1966.
  • Selected Poems.Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1968.
  • Uplands.New York: Norton, 1970.ISBN0-393-04322-3
  • Briefings: Poems Small and Easy.New York: Norton, 1971.ISBN0-393-04326-6
  • Collected Poems, 1951-1971.New York: Norton, 1972.ISBN0-393-04241-3—winner of the National Book Award[16]
  • Sphere: The Form of a Motion.New York: Norton, 1974.ISBN0-393-04388-6—winner of the Bollingen Prize for Poetry
  • Diversifications.New York: Norton, 1975.ISBN0-393-04414-9
  • The Selected Poems: 1951-1977.New York: Norton, 1977.ISBN0-393-04465-3
  • Highgate Road.Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1977.
  • The Snow Poems.New York: Norton, 1977.ISBN0-393-04467-X
  • Selected Longer Poems.New York: Norton, 1980.ISBN0-393-01297-2
  • A Coast of Trees.New York: Norton, 1981.ISBN0-393-01447-9—winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
  • Worldly Hopes.New York: Norton, 1982.ISBN0-393-01518-1
  • Lake Effect Country.New York: Norton, 1983.ISBN0-393-01702-8
  • The Selected Poems: Expanded Edition.New York: Norton, 1986.ISBN0-393-02411-3
  • Sumerian Vistas.New York: Norton, 1987.ISBN0-393-02468-7
  • The Really Short Poems.New York: Norton, 1991.ISBN0-393-02870-4
  • Garbage.New York: Norton, 1993.ISBN0-393-03542-5—winner of the National Book Award[17]
  • The North Carolina Poems.Alex Albright, ed. Rocky Mount, NC: NC Wesleyan College P, 1994.ISBN0-933598-51-3
  • Brink Road.New York: Norton, 1996.ISBN0-393-03958-7
  • Glare.New York: Norton, 1997.ISBN0-393-04096-8
  • Bosh and Flapdoodle: Poems.New York: Norton, 2005.ISBN0-393-05952-9
  • Selected Poems.David Lehman, ed. New York: Library of America, 2006.ISBN1-931082-93-6
  • The North Carolina Poems.New, expanded edition. Frankfort, KY: Broadstone Books, 2010.ISBN978-0-9802117-2-6
  • The Mule Poems.Fountain, NC: R. A. Fountain, 2010.ISBN0-9842102-0-2(chapbook)
  • The Complete Poems of A. R. Ammons, Volume 1 1955-1977; Volume 2 1978-2005: Edited by Robert M. West; Introduction by Helen Vendler. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 2017ISBN9780393070132hardcover vol. 1;ISBN9780393254891hardcover vol. 2

Prose

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  • Set in Motion: Essays, Interviews, and Dialogues(1996)
  • An Image for Longing: Selected Letters and Journals of A.R. Ammons, 1951–1974.Ed. Kevin McGuirk. Victoria, BC: ELS Editions, 2014.ISBN978-1550584561

Critical studies and reviews of Ammons's work

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References

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  1. ^ab"Poet A.R. Ammons, twice a National Book Award winner, dead at 75".Cornell Chronicle.February 26, 2001.RetrievedMarch 13,2023.
  2. ^abcd"A.R. Ammons".Poetry Foundation.RetrievedMarch 13,2023.
  3. ^abSchneider, Stephen P. (Winter 2005–2006)."The Continuing Radiance of A.R. Ammons".The Mississippi Quarterly.59(1–2): 363–368.ISBN9780393059991– via JSTOR.
  4. ^Gantt, Patricia (1992). "The A.R. Ammons Papers: Bits of Resistance Against Time."North Carolina Literary Review 1: 164–165.
  5. ^Wilson, Emily Herring (October 2007). "A Poet in Hattaras Village."Our State: Down Home in North Carolina:204-208.
  6. ^"A. R. Ammons".
  7. ^abLehman, David (2002). "A.R. Ammons' Life and Career". In Hamilton, Ian (ed.).The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English.Oxford UP (published 1994).ISBN0-19-866147-9.
  8. ^Patterson, John (1992). "A Dictionary of North Carolina Writers, A-Bl".North Carolina Literary Review.1:153–154.
  9. ^Daniel Aloi (April 19, 2018)."Colleagues celebrate A.R. Ammons in Temple of Zeus".Cornell Chronicle.RetrievedMay 5,2020.
  10. ^Laymon, Rob."NOTED POET TO INJECT LIFE INTO WORKS IN O.C. VISIT",The Press of Atlantic City,July 23, 1992. Accessed March 29, 2011. "Ammons wrote Corsons Inlet in August of 1962, after having lived in Northfield and Millville for many years."
  11. ^Miller, Michael."Pulitzer Prize poet will read works in O.C."[dead link],The Press of Atlantic City,June 22, 2007. Accessed September 13, 2015. "The late poet A.R. Ammons, formerly of Ocean City, Northfield and Millville, won the prestigious National Book Award."
  12. ^"A.R. Ammons, Poet, Dies at 75".Associated Press.February 26, 2001.RetrievedMarch 13,2023.
  13. ^abcGilbert, Roger (March 1, 2012). "I Went to the Summit: The Literary Bromance of A.R. Ammons and Harold Bloom".Genre.45(1): 167–193.doi:10.1215/00166928-1507074.
  14. ^abGilbert, Roger (Spring 2010)."Sea and Mountains, Motion and Measure: The Complimentary Poetics of A.R. Ammons and Robert Morgan".Southern Quarterly.47(3): 71–90.
  15. ^Nutt, David (April 21, 2022)."'Ammons & the Falls' highlights poet's ties to Ithaca landscape ".Cornell Chronicle.RetrievedMarch 13,2023.
  16. ^ab "National Book Awards – 1973".National Book Foundation.Retrieved 2012-04-07.
    (With acceptance speech by Ammons and essay by Christopher Shannon from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog—one "Appreciation" for Ammons's two awards.)
  17. ^ab "National Book Awards – 1993".National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
    (With acceptance speech by Ammons.)
  18. ^The A. R. Ammons Poetry Contest in his boyhood home Columbus County, NC was begun in 1992.http://arammonspoetrycontest.org/about-the-contest/[permanent dead link] "Poet A.R. Ammons, twice a National Book Award winner, dead at 75".Cornell News. February 26, 2001.RetrievedSeptember 26,2008.
  19. ^Stephen Burt (June 17, 2008)."In Retrospect: Stephen Burt on A.R. Ammons".National Book Critics Circle.RetrievedAugust 28,2008.
  20. ^"A.R. Ammons".The Academy of American Poets.RetrievedAugust 28,2008.
  21. ^"Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A"(PDF).American Academy of Arts and Sciences.Archived(PDF)from the original on May 10, 2011.RetrievedApril 17,2011.
  22. ^abcLehman, David (2006)."Archie: A Profile of A.R. Ammons".American Poet.Archived fromthe originalon May 17, 2008.RetrievedAugust 27,2008.
  23. ^Hirsch, Edwatd ' A Poets Glossary' Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston 2014ISBN9780151011957
  24. ^McGuirk, Kevin (1997)."A. R. Ammons and the Whole Earth".Cultural Critique(37): 131–158.doi:10.2307/1354543.ISSN0882-4371.JSTOR1354543.
  25. ^Online version is titled "The great American poet of daily chores".
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