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Working Classics: Poems on Industrial Life
From the cannery rows of California to the sweatshops of New York, this
anthology of poems captures the drama of work and working-class life in
industrial America. It speaks of rolling mills, mine shafts, and foundries,
and of a people who dig coal, tap blast furnaces, sew shirts, clean fish,
and assemble cars. These subjects, though largely absent from literary
anthologies and textbooks, are increasingly evident in the work of contemporary
poets. Working Classics gathers the best and most representative
of these poems, American and Canadian, from 1945 to the present.
Included are poems by Antler, Robert Bly, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Jim Daniels,
Patricia Dobler, Stephen Dunn, Tess Gallagher, Edward Hirsch, David Ignatow,
June Jordan, Lawrence Joseph, Philip Levine, Chris Llewellyn, Joyce Carol
Oates, Anthony Petrosky, Michael Ryan, Gary Soto, Tom Wayman, James Wright,
and many others. The result is a diverse and evocative collection of 169
poems by 74 poets, nearly a third of them women.
anthology of poems captures the drama of work and working-class life in
industrial America. It speaks of rolling mills, mine shafts, and foundries,
and of a people who dig coal, tap blast furnaces, sew shirts, clean fish,
and assemble cars. These subjects, though largely absent from literary
anthologies and textbooks, are increasingly evident in the work of contemporary
poets. Working Classics gathers the best and most representative
of these poems, American and Canadian, from 1945 to the present.
Included are poems by Antler, Robert Bly, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Jim Daniels,
Patricia Dobler, Stephen Dunn, Tess Gallagher, Edward Hirsch, David Ignatow,
June Jordan, Lawrence Joseph, Philip Levine, Chris Llewellyn, Joyce Carol
Oates, Anthony Petrosky, Michael Ryan, Gary Soto, Tom Wayman, James Wright,
and many others. The result is a diverse and evocative collection of 169
poems by 74 poets, nearly a third of them women.
- GenresPoetryAnthologies
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
1 person is currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Peter Oresick
27 books13 followersPeter Oresick (pronounced o-RES-ik) is a poet, publisher, and professor.
Currently he is Associate Professor of English at Chatham University, where teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing Program and edits the literary journal The Fourth River . He has also taught at the The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, Emerson College, and the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts.
As a publisher he served in senior positions in literary, scholarly, and technical publishing from 1981 to 2004 at the University of Pittsburgh Press, Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, and Printing Industries of America.
At the University of Pittsburgh Oresick earned a BA in Education and a MFA in Poetry.
Currently he is Associate Professor of English at Chatham University, where teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing Program and edits the literary journal The Fourth River . He has also taught at the The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, Emerson College, and the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts.
As a publisher he served in senior positions in literary, scholarly, and technical publishing from 1981 to 2004 at the University of Pittsburgh Press, Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, and Printing Industries of America.
At the University of Pittsburgh Oresick earned a BA in Education and a MFA in Poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 14, 2017
Maybe it's just my blue collar family background crazy-talking me into thinking all these poems are genius - but there you go. The beauty of line work, the creative existential flowering of factory cogs, foundry labor, Cuba, Detroit, Massachusetts..................America. Listen to Ed Ochester in your head:
The Miners at Revloc
Coal has entered their skin.
A fine black salt drifts
back into their meals.
Every day the mills are fed
tiny wafers of their flesh.
Gives me chills it does - that the miners have been incorporated into the sacrament of commerce. Many of my favorite poets are in this collection - Edward Hirsch, Philip Levine, Antler, Donald Hall, Jim Daniels - and writers that I don't usually associate with poetry like Gary Soto and Joyce Carol Oates.
And, because 3-25 (1911) is the ghastly anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, I'll type up a small offering from Part 2 of Mary Fell's "The Triangle Fire":
2. Among the Dead
First a lace of smoke
decorated the air of the workroom,
the far wall unfolded
into fire. The elevator shaft
spun out flames like a bobbin,
the last car sank.
I leaped for the cable,
my only chance. Woven steel
burned my hands as I wound
to the bottom.
I opened my eyes. I was lying
in the street. Water and blood
washed the cobbles, the sky
rained ash. A pair of shoes
lay beside me, in them
two blistered feet.
I saw the weave in the fabric
of a girl's good coat,
the wilted nosegay pinned to her collar.
Not flowers, what I breathed then,
awake among the dead.
Clearly, the theme of this anthology is the working lives of human beings, mostly gritty but often (and surprisingly) beautiful and elegant. The collection feels very 1940s, but many of the poems were written in the 70s and 80s. I'm not an expert on the state of the nation, but it seems to me that the country's factories are in the process of winding down, smokestacks are dormant. Poems on sweatshops and picket lines no longer seem so apt, but change the "mill's black heart" to corporate exploitation and you might still identify with the blood loss and suffering of working men and women. Better yet, apply globally and understand that "behind every device of recreation and leisure," "behind every laborsaving device" is a factory slave (Antler).
The Miners at Revloc
Coal has entered their skin.
A fine black salt drifts
back into their meals.
Every day the mills are fed
tiny wafers of their flesh.
Gives me chills it does - that the miners have been incorporated into the sacrament of commerce. Many of my favorite poets are in this collection - Edward Hirsch, Philip Levine, Antler, Donald Hall, Jim Daniels - and writers that I don't usually associate with poetry like Gary Soto and Joyce Carol Oates.
And, because 3-25 (1911) is the ghastly anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, I'll type up a small offering from Part 2 of Mary Fell's "The Triangle Fire":
2. Among the Dead
First a lace of smoke
decorated the air of the workroom,
the far wall unfolded
into fire. The elevator shaft
spun out flames like a bobbin,
the last car sank.
I leaped for the cable,
my only chance. Woven steel
burned my hands as I wound
to the bottom.
I opened my eyes. I was lying
in the street. Water and blood
washed the cobbles, the sky
rained ash. A pair of shoes
lay beside me, in them
two blistered feet.
I saw the weave in the fabric
of a girl's good coat,
the wilted nosegay pinned to her collar.
Not flowers, what I breathed then,
awake among the dead.
Clearly, the theme of this anthology is the working lives of human beings, mostly gritty but often (and surprisingly) beautiful and elegant. The collection feels very 1940s, but many of the poems were written in the 70s and 80s. I'm not an expert on the state of the nation, but it seems to me that the country's factories are in the process of winding down, smokestacks are dormant. Poems on sweatshops and picket lines no longer seem so apt, but change the "mill's black heart" to corporate exploitation and you might still identify with the blood loss and suffering of working men and women. Better yet, apply globally and understand that "behind every device of recreation and leisure," "behind every laborsaving device" is a factory slave (Antler).
December 2, 2012
One of my 2012 reading resolutions was to read more poetry; I haven't followed through, though. Even with this poetry anthology, I skipped through it, mostly reading the poems that grabbed me immediately or concerned Western Pennsylvania. That said, I enjoyed the poems that I read.
The following was my favorite:
Field Trip to the Rolling Mill, 1950
Sister Monica has her hands full
timing the climb to the catwalk
so the fourth-graders are lined up
before the next heat is tapped, "and no
giggling no jostling, you monkeys!
So close to the edge!" She passes out
sourballs for bribes, no liking
the smile on the foreman's face,
the way he pulls at his cap,
he's not Catholic. Protestant madness,
these field trips, this hanging from catwalks
suspended over an open hearth.
Sister Monica understands Hell
to be like this. If overhead cranes clawing
their way through the layers of dark air
grew leathery wings and flew screeching
at them, it wouldn't surprise her.
And the three warning whistle blasts,
the blazing orange heat pouring out
liquid fire like Devil's soup
doesn't surprise her - she understands
Industry and Capital and Labor,
the Protestant trinity. That is why
she trembles here, the children clinging
to her as she watches then learn their future.
-Patricia Dobler
From the Notes, I learned that Patricia Dobler was born and raised in Middletown, Ohio and lives in Pittsburgh.
I still want to read more poetry and have several others on my shelves. But I can't help recalling Sam Hazo's comment during a reading, that poetry is meant to be heard.
The following was my favorite:
Field Trip to the Rolling Mill, 1950
Sister Monica has her hands full
timing the climb to the catwalk
so the fourth-graders are lined up
before the next heat is tapped, "and no
giggling no jostling, you monkeys!
So close to the edge!" She passes out
sourballs for bribes, no liking
the smile on the foreman's face,
the way he pulls at his cap,
he's not Catholic. Protestant madness,
these field trips, this hanging from catwalks
suspended over an open hearth.
Sister Monica understands Hell
to be like this. If overhead cranes clawing
their way through the layers of dark air
grew leathery wings and flew screeching
at them, it wouldn't surprise her.
And the three warning whistle blasts,
the blazing orange heat pouring out
liquid fire like Devil's soup
doesn't surprise her - she understands
Industry and Capital and Labor,
the Protestant trinity. That is why
she trembles here, the children clinging
to her as she watches then learn their future.
-Patricia Dobler
From the Notes, I learned that Patricia Dobler was born and raised in Middletown, Ohio and lives in Pittsburgh.
I still want to read more poetry and have several others on my shelves. But I can't help recalling Sam Hazo's comment during a reading, that poetry is meant to be heard.
December 31, 2015
Five stars because it's such a useful and original anthology, though I'd give it 3 stars for the cumulative dreary effect of 300 pages of so many "woe is me I'm a downtrodden worker" poems. Not that they're all like that. My personal taste keeps me always on the lookout for poems about taking pride in one's skills. Through this book I've discovered some wonderful poets I otherwise would never have heard of, including at least one who apparently never had a book published: Todd Jailer. Some of the name brand writers - Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Bly - are of less interest, sounding like upper class writers who are trying to write about "the condition of the working class." Others like Philip Levine have an authenticity that comes from inside experience. Best of all are the lesser known, the less polished gems - totally genuine - you'll find here.
April 1, 2008
An anthology of unadorned verse. As down-to-earth and matter-of-fact as the reality of working-class life in industrial America. Miners, farmers, line-workers, mechanics, seamstresses add their personal chronicles, from 1945 to the present. Poets who are primarily workers mix their work with poets who are primarily artists, exploring insider vs. outsider perspectives on physical labor and creative work.
Included are poems by familiar names such as Robert Bly, Patricia Dobler, Stephen Dunn, Tess Gallagher, Edward Hirsch, David Ignatow, June Jordan, Lawrence Joseph, Philip Levine, Chris Llewellyn, Joyce Carol Oates, Anthony Petrosky, Michael Ryan, Gary Soto, Tom Wayman, and James Wright. The collection amounts to 169 poems by 74 poets.
Included are poems by familiar names such as Robert Bly, Patricia Dobler, Stephen Dunn, Tess Gallagher, Edward Hirsch, David Ignatow, June Jordan, Lawrence Joseph, Philip Levine, Chris Llewellyn, Joyce Carol Oates, Anthony Petrosky, Michael Ryan, Gary Soto, Tom Wayman, and James Wright. The collection amounts to 169 poems by 74 poets.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews