A Coherent Splendor: The American Poetic Renaissance, 1910-1950

by Albert Gelpi

In this book Professor Gelpi traces the emergence of American Modernist poetry as a reaction to, and outgrowth of, the Romantic ideology of the nineteenth century. He focuses on the remarkable generation of poets who came to maturity in the years of the First World War and whose works constitute the principal body of poetic Modernism in English. This large historical argument is developed through monographic chapters on the poets which include close readings of their major poems. Comprehensive in scope and subtle in its analysis, Gelpi's book promises to be one of the major studies of American poetry for years to come.

Genres: Poetry

496 pages, Hardcover

First published January 29, 1988

About the author

Albert Gelpi is William Robertson Coe Professor of American Literature at Stanford University, where he has also taught since 1968. His books include Emily Dickinson: The Mind of the Poet, The Tenth Muse: The Psyche of the American Poet, and, most recently, A Coherent Splendor: The American Poetic Renaissance, 1910-1950. He is the editor of Wallace Stevens: The Poetics of Modernism and Denise Levertov: Selected Criticism and for a decade edited Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture.

Reviews

[J. Alfred]

A favorite movie in my family and now, I'm happy to say, in my in-laws' home, is The Great Race, featuring Jack Lemmon and hijinks; at one point the drunken prince character walks down a hallway to trumpets and then says "That was exhausting." That's the way I feel after finishing this book. Gelpi takes his time hitting many of the major figures in American modernism, often interestingly pairing them, and showing how they mirror and grow out of nineteenth century Romanticism. Modernism and Romanticism are "Janus faced," he says. It's informative and moves interestingly between biography, social background, and close readings, and will give you an relatively low-threshhold introduction to psychological (he often calls it 'archetypal') criticism. Good, especially on Pound, throughout, and the Ivor Winters/Robinson Jeffers pairing at the end, but time-intensive.
(The prince character later says "I used to ride my pony up and down these halls. Then I grew up, got drunk, and fell off!" Jack Lemmon plays both him and a mustachio'd person called Professor Fate. Watch this film. Read the book too, but watch the film.)