New Formalism

This article is about the late 20th-century movement in literature. For the mid-20th-century style of architecture, seeNew Formalism (architecture).

New Formalismis a late 20th- and early 21st-century movement inAmerican poetrythat has promoted a return tometrical,rhymedverse andnarrative poetryon the grounds that all three are necessary if American poetry is to compete withnovelsand regain its former popularity among the American people.

Background

The formal innovations ofModernist poetry,inspired byWalt Whitmanand popularized byEzra Pound,Edgar Lee Masters,andT.S. Eliot,led to the widespread publication offree verseduring the early 20th century. By the 1920s, debates about the value of free verse versus formal poetry were filling the pages of American literary journals.

Meanwhile, many poets chose to continue working predominantly in traditional forms, such asRobert Frost,Richard Wilbur,andAnthony Hecht.Formal verse also continued being written by American poets associated with theNew Criticism,includingJohn Crowe Ransom,Robert Penn WarrenandAllen Tate.

During the 1950s, the second coming of "The Free Verse Revolution" was inspired by the writings ofBeat GenerationpoetsAllen Ginsberg,Kenneth Rexroth,and ofImagistpoetWilliam Carlos Williams.The Second Free Verse Revolution also introduced intoAmerican poetry,according toFrederick FeirsteinandFrederick Turner,theSilent Generation's much wider, "revolt against the social conventions ofPuritanAmerica ", which was reflected by theGreasersubcultureof the era and theRock and Rollmusic ofChuck Berry,Little Richard,Bill Haley,andElvis Presley.

As a result, it became more expected for poets to experiment and, with the rise ofConfessional poetry,the writing and publication of non-autobiographical and non-Left wing verse became unfashionable. As often happens in literature and the arts, however, what had begun as ananti-establishmentcountercultureseeking freedom from constraint hardened over time into anauthoritarianliterary elite which opposed innovation and expressed hostility to both older and younger poets who refused to conform to its dictates.

According to Feirstein and Turner,

"It is hard to imagine in 1989 how narrow anddoctrinairewas the world of poetry in the seventies when the poets in the movement began to mature. Both narrative and meter were considered at best out of date and at worst the instruments of bourgeois capitalism. Ignoring the strict meter and narrative impulses ofbluesandcountryand western lyrics, the high priests of the ruling ideology proclaimed that narrative and meter wereelitistEuropean importations and that the true American voice could only be heard in free verse. These views went together with a pose of the poet as resenting and rebelling against the poets cultural past and that of society at large. Although he or she invariably taught in a university, theposeurswould express profound hostility to the intellectual imagination, especially in the forms of science and technology, and a sentimental preference for nature over culture. The poseurs often would be gleefully pessimistic about the future which would seem to justify their solipsistic confessions about their darkly perceived past. "

In an essay that he admitted was similarly intended to provoke,R.S. Gwynnwrote in similar terms about American poetry of the 1970s,

"The tribal music of Poetryland -- the murky manifestos of Projective Verse and breath-units, the proliferation of cut-rate knock-offs ofHowlandDaddy,theshamanismof theDeep Imageand the multiform brain -- had begun to resemble ritualizedincantations,mumbled by the multitudes of but comprehended by few, and a sense emerged that certain types of poetry had overstayed their welcome. "

An early sign of a revival of interest in traditional poetic forms was the publication ofLewis Turco'sThe Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poeticsin1968.In the early 1970sX. J. Kennedystarted publishing the short-lived magazineCounter/Measureswhich 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 continued to oppose rhyme and meter.

Meanwhile, aspiring Formalist poets from both the Silent andBaby Boomer Generationswere still able to attend classes taught by older professors, includingYvor Winters,Robert Fitzgerald,andElizabeth Bishop,who continued to teach bothliterary criticismand the craft of writing poetry in a more traditional way.

In a 2021 interview,Dana Gioiasaid that while New Formalism andNew Narrativeare the most controversial responses inAmerican poetryto the Second Free Verse Revolution, they are only one facet of an enormous grassroots movement. Gioia elaborates,

"If I go back to 1975 when I was leaving Harvard, I was told by the world experts in poetry that rhyme and meter were dead, narrative was dead in poetry. Poetry would become ever more complex, which meant that it could only appeal to an elite audience, and finally, that theAfrican Americanvoice in poetry rejected these European things and would take this experimental form. What theintellectualsin theUnited Statesdid was we took poetry away from common people. We tookrhymeaway, we tooknarrativeaway, we took theballadaway, and the common people reinvented it. The greatest one of these wasKool Hercin theSouth Bronx,who invented what we now think of asrapandhip hop.Within about ten years, it went from non-existent to being the most widely purchased form of popular music. We saw in our own lifetime something akin toHomer,the reinvention of popularoral poetry.There were parallels in the revival ofslam poetry,cowboy poetry,and new formalism, so at every little social group, people from the ground up reinvented poetry because the intellectuals had taken it away from them. "

In whatWilliam Baerhas seen as the beginning of New Formalism,Rachel Hadaspublished her firstchapbookin 1975,Charles Martinpublished his first collection in 1978, andTimothy Steele's first book of poems appeared in 1979.

Frederick Feirstein and Frederick Turner, on the other hand, first became aware that New Formalism existed during a 1981 conversation withDick Allenat the "Minetta Tavern" inGreenwich Village.Turner had just published the provocative essay "Mighty Poets in Their Misery Dead: A Polemic on the Contemporary Poetry Scene" inMissouri Reviewand had immediately heard from many fellow Formalist poets. Meanwhile, Feirstein was already corresponding with West Coast Formalist poets, includingCharles Martinand Dana Gioia. Turner and Feirstein later recalled, "We began to see ourselves as a distinct movement of many people. We saw each other's work begin to appear consistently in the literary journals."

Other literary scholars, including Robert McPhillips andGerry Cambridge,date the beginning of New Formalism from the publication ofDiane Wakoski's 1986polemicessay"The New Conservatism in American Poetry" and the irate defenses that same essay provoked fromRobert Mezey,Lewis Turco,David Radavich,Brian Richards,and Dana Gioia.

Early history

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 theMississippi Reviewcalled 'Freedom and Form: American Poets Respond'. The late 1970s saw the publication of a few collections by poets working in traditional forms, includingComforting the Wilderness(1977) byRobert B. Shaw,Room for Error(1978) byCharles Martin,andTimothy Steele'sUncertainties and Rest(1979). In1980Mark Jarmanand Robert McDowell started the small magazineThe Reaperto promote narrative and formal poetry. In1981Jane GreerlaunchedPlains Poetry Journal,which published new work in traditional forms. In1984McDowell started Story Line Press which has since published some New Formalist poets.The Reaperran for ten years.Frederick Feirstein'sExpansive Poetry(1989) gathered various essays on the New Formalism and the related movementNew Narrative,under the umbrella term 'Expansive Poetry'.

From 1983 the onset of "neoformalism" was noted in the annual poetry roundups in the yearbooks ofThe Dictionary of Literary Biography,and through the mid-1980s heated debates on the topic of formalism were carried on in several journals.1986saw the publication ofVikram Seth'sThe Golden Gate: A Novel in Verseand the anthologyStrong Measures: Contemporary American Poetry in Traditional Forms.

The Poetry Wars

As the pioneers of the movement were joined in print by a growing number other young formalist poets, the dispute that had begun in the 1920s and 1950s reignited and would later be dubbedthe Poetry Warsby literary critics and historians.This time, however, Free Verse poets, many of whom were English professors and veterans of the1960s Counterculture,found themselves in the ironic position of beingThe Establishment.

The term 'New Formalism' was first used by Ariel Dawson in the article "The Yuppie Poet" in the May1985issue of theAWPNewsletter,which was apolemicagainst returning to traditional poetic forms. Dawson's article accused the New Formalist poets not only ofsocial conservatism,but also ofyuppiecapitalism,consumerism,andgreed;an allegation that would be repeated many times in the future.

Meanwhile, Frederick Turner andpsychologistandneuroscientistErnst Pöppelof theMax Planck InstituteinMunich,West Germany,made a scientific breakthrough by proving, "that regular rhythm actually induces the brain to release pleasure-creatingendorphins"and, in 1985, they published their findings in the award-winning essayThe Neural Lyre: Poetic Meter, the Brain, and Timein the magazinePoetry.

In 1986,Diane Wakoski,adeep imagepoet,literary critic,and professor atMichigan State University,published the essayThe New Conservatism in American Poetry.The essay was provoked when Wakoski attended aModern Language Associationconference in which old FormalistJohn Hollanderspoke critically, according to Robert McPhillips, of college and university, "creative writing programs and the general slackness of most free verse."

In a critique which Robert McPhillips has called, "less aesthetic than it is political",Wakoski recalled about Hollander's remarks, "I thought that I heardthe Devilspeaking to me. "Hollander was, Wakoski alleged," a man full of spite, from lack of recognition and thinly disguised anger... who was frustrated and petty from that frustration, "as he was," denouncing the free verse revolution, denouncing the poetry which is the fulfillment of theWhitmanheritage, making defensive jokes about the ill-educated, slovenly writers of poetry who have been teaching college poetry classes for the past decade, allowing their students to write drivel and go out into the world,illiterateof poetry. "Wakoski then turned her attack against the younger poets, whom she called, "really the spokesmen for the new conservatism," which she called an unfortunate continuation of the legacies ofHenry Wadsworth Longfellow,T.S. Eliot,andRobert Frost.

According to Gerry Cambridge, "This attack generated five responses, fromRobert Mezey,Lewis Turco,David Radavich, Brian Richards, and Dana Gioia. Most of them denied any necessary link between aesthetic and politics, in particular between form andconservatism,citingEzra Poundas an example of aFascistwho wrotefree verse.They also criticized as a kind of cultural fascism Wakoski's intolerance of literary pluralism, paradoxically in the guise of a democratic Whitmanism that declared form to be un-American. Gioia compared her tone and content to 'the quest forpure Germanicculture led by the lateJoseph Goebbels.' He entertainingly suggested 'the radical notion' that whatever poetry was written by Americans constitutedAmerican poetry.Wakoski's polemic and these responses were the first public controversy about the young movement. "

Despite more recent arguments against politicalstereotypingby Progressive New Formalist poets, such asPaul Lakein the1988essay,Towards a Liberal Poeticsand byA.E. Stallingsin the2010essayAfro-Formalism,as Dana Gioia wrote in 1987, "for many writers the discussion between formal and free-verse has become an encoded political debate."

Therefore, the Poetry Wars continued and poets who wrote free verse and Confessional poetry were alleged to be socialprogressives,anti-racists,and asNew Leftsocialists.New Formalist andNew Narrativepoets, on the other hand, were stereotyped asold moneyWhite Anglo-Saxon Protestantpreppiesand asAnglophilesfilled with hatred of theAmerican Revolutionandnostalgiafor theBritish Empire.American poetry in traditional verse forms was, according topolemicistsdefending "The Free Verse Revolution",reactionary,Eurocentric,un-American,white supremacist,and evenfascist.

For female New Formalists, The Poetry Wars meant accusations of betraying their gender and the cause offeminism;asAnnie Finchwrote in 1994 in the Introduction toA Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women,"Readers who have been following the discussion of the 'New Formalism' over the last decade may not expect to find such a diversity of writers and themes in a book of formal poems; the poems collected here contradict the popular assumption that formal poetics correspond to reactionary politics and elitist aesthetics.The passion for form unites these many and diverse poets. "

Similar accusations were unleashed against minority New Formalists and, in an essay of her own,Dominican-Americanpoet and novelistJulia Alvarezdefended her decision to write in languages and verse forms introduced to theNew Worldby English and Spanish colonialists, while simultaneously subverting them by using those languages and verse forms to, "say what's important to me as a woman and as aLatina."

Later history

In1990William BaerstartedThe Formalistand the first issue contained poems by, among others,Howard Nemerov,Richard Wilbur,andDonald Justice.The magazine ran twice a year for fifteen years, with the fall/winter 2004 issue being the last.The Formalistwas succeeded byMeasure: A Review of Formal Poetry,which is published biannually by theUniversity of Evansville.

Since 1995,West Chester Universityhas held an annualpoetry conferencewith a special focus on formal poetry and New Formalism. Despite his original reluctance, the involvement ofRichard Wilburas the keynote speaker at the first conference in 1995 was a major reason for both its success and subsequent continuation. Richard Wilbur also continued to attend the Conference and teach classes there on the poets craft until well into his nineties.Every year theRobert Fitzgerald Prosody Awardis awarded as part of the West Chester Poetry Conference.

Dominican-AmericanpoetRhina Espaillat,who attended the first West Chester Poetry Conference as a student, has used her subsequent position as a teacher at the Conference to introduce her students to verse forms fromSpanishandLatin American poetry,including thedécimaand theovillejo.This has led to those verse forms being introduced into English-language poetry by Espaillat's students.

Dick Davis,aPersophile,University-trainedIranologist,and award-winning translator ofPersian poetry,andAgha Shahid Ali,aQizilbashKashmiriShiiteMuslimand composer ofGhazalsinAmerican English,are also considered to be New Formalists.

Within New Formalism there are also several living authors ofChristian poetry.They includeDana Gioia,Frederick Turner,David Middleton, and James Matthew Wilson.

Modern Christian poetry may be found in anthologies and in several Christian magazines such asCommonweal,Christian CenturyandSojourners.Poetry by a new generation of Catholic poets appears inSt. Austin Review,Dappled Things,The Lamp,andFirst Things.

Legacy

During the early 21st century, poems in traditional forms were once again being published more widely, and the new formalist movement was winding down.

In 2001 the American poetLeo YankevichfoundedThe New Formalist,which published among others the poetsJared CarterandKeith Holyoak.

Meanwhile, the movement was still not without its detractors. In the November/December 2003 issue ofP. 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."

Since then, the effects of new formalism 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 ofvillanellesincluded in the post-mid-'80s editions.The publication of books concerned with poetic form has also increased.Lewis Turco'sBook of Formsfrom 1968 was revised and reissued in 1986 under the title 'New Book of Forms.Alfred Corn'sThe Poem's Heartbeat,Mary Oliver'sRules of the Dance,andStephen Fry'sThe Ode Less Travelledare other examples of this trend. The widely used anthologyAn Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art(University of Michigan Press, 2002), edited byAnnie Finchand Kathrine Varnes, defines formalist poetry as a form on a par with experimental, free verse, and even prose poetry.

In a 2010 essay,PhilhellenepoetessA.E. Stallings,whose poetry has been favorably compared with that of bothRichard WilburandEdna St. Vincent Millay,expressed regret that the writing of formal verse inAmerican poetryremained, "an oddly politicized choice". Stallings added that female and minority New Formalists continued to be, "criticized", as part of what she dubbed, "that falsedichotomyof free verse = democracy and empowerment and progress whereas formal verse = oppression andelitismandkowtowingtodead white males."

Later in that same essay, however, Stallings described listening toAfrican-AmericanpoetErica Dawson,"who has something like rock star status in the formal world", as Dawson described how, "A decade ago she was told at a recitation contest that 'form was dead' but now she has served as judge at that same contest. She exuded confidence and vindication, taking on the canon in her own terms."

In a 2022 interview withSt. Austin Reviewco-editorJoseph Pearce,Polish journalist Anna Szyda from theliterary magazineMagna Poloniaexplained that thenihilismof modernAmerican poetryis widely noticed and commented upon in theThird Polish Republicas reflecting, "the deleterious influence of the contemporary civilisation on the American soul." In response, StAR co-editorJoseph Pearcedescribed "the neo-formalist revival" inspired by the lateRichard Wilburand how it has been reflected in recent verse by the Catholic poets whom he andRobert Aschpublish in StAR. Pearce said that the Catholic faith andoptimismof the younger generation of Catholic poets made him feel hope for the future.

In a 2016 interview with John Cusatis,Dana Gioiaexplained, "Literary movementsare always temporary. They last a decade or so, and then they die or merge into the mainstream. The best New Formalist poets gradually became mainstream figures. There was no climax to the so-called Poetry Wars, only slow assimilation and change. Free and formal verse gradually ceased to be considered polar opposites. Form became one of the available styles of contemporary practice. Today one finds poems in rhyme and meter in most literary magazines. New Formalism became so successful that it no longer needed to exist. "

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 Formalismedited byMark JarmanandDavid Mason,1996.
• The Direction of Poetry: An Anthology of Rhymed and Metered Verse Written in the English Language since 1975,edited byRobert Richman
• A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women,edited byAnnie Finch,1993

See also

• The New Formalist,a literary journal
• EratosphereandPoetcraft Circles Community,online communities associated with formal poetry
• The Lyric,a journal devoted to formal poetry
• Mezzo Cammin,a journal devoted to formal poetry by women specifically

Further reading

• Levinson, Marjorie,What Is New Formalism?,In: Publications of theModern Language Associationof America, Volume 122, Number 2, March 2007, pp. 558–569
• McPhillips, Robert,The New Formalism: A Critical Introduction,expanded edition 2005, Textos Books, OhioISBN1-932339-68-X.
• Waniek, Marilyn Nelson(1995)."Owning the Masters".The Gettysburg Review.Archived fromthe originalon November 22, 2017.RetrievedNovember 22,2017.
• Stallings, A.E.(April 21, 2010)."Afro-formalism".The Poetry Foundation.RetrievedNovember 21,2017.