Afterword
Toward the end of his memoir, James Merrill addresses the significance of the trope of the closet and postulates on its importance to the artist: To the artist a closet is quite useful as it once was to the homosexual: what John Hollander calls, in the li
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Rhetoric and S exuality The Poetry of H art Crane, Eliz abeth Bishop, and James Merrill
Peter Nickowitz
RHETORIC AND SEXUALITY
© Peter Nickowitz, 2006. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-6849-4 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-73465-8 ISBN 978-1-137-07949-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-07949-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: February 2006 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Transferred to digital printing in 2008.
Contents
Acknowledgments
vi
Introduction
1
1 Chrysalis Unbound: Poems of Origin and Initiation
11
2 Anatomy of a Mother
53
Coda: Literary Mothers
92
3 Burnt Matches, or the Art of Love
101
Afterword
145
Notes
151
Bibliography
169
Index
175
Acknowledgments
I would like to record my gratitude to my colleagues and friends
who helped me in manifold ways to complete this book: Tom Fink, Bill Handley, Carlos Hiraldo, Katie Hogan, Karlyn Koh, Isabel Garcia Lorca, Karen McKinnon, Bill Oliver, Ron Palmer, and Michael Silverman, and Farideh Koohi-Kamali, Lynn Vande Stouwe and Will Fain at Palgrave. I would also like to thank Professor Harold Bloom for his encouragement and support; Phillip Brian Harper and Carolyn Dever for their guidance and suggestions on the earliest drafts of this study. I thank Deborah Landau for her conversations on poetry and her unconditional friendship. Finally, I thank my parents, Arlen and Gail, and my sister, Allyson, for everything else. I would also like to thank the publishers and editors of Hart Crane’s, Elizabeth Bishop’s, and James Merrill’s work for their assistance. From Complete Poems of Hart Crane by Hart Crane, edited by Marc Simon. Copyright 1933, 1958, 1966 by Liveright Publishing Corporation. Copyright 1986 by Marc Simon. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus, Giroux, LLC. Excerpts from The Collected Prose by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright 1984 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Excerpts from The Complete Poems 1927–1979 by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Excerpts from One Art: Letters by Elizabeth Bishop, selected and edited by Robert Giroux. Copyright 1994 by
