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The Collected Poems
A seminal figure in post-World War II literature, Charles Olson (1910-1970) has helped define the postmodern sensibility. His poetry is marked by an almost limitless range of interest and extraordinary depth of feeling. Olson's themes are among the largest conceivable: empowering love, political responsibility, historical discovery and cultural reckoning, the wisdom of dreams and the transformation of consciousness—all carried in a voice both intimate and grand, American and timeless, impassioned and coolly demanding. Until recently, Olson's reputation as a major figure in American literature has rested primarily on his theoretical writings and his epic work, the Maximus Poems. With The Collected Poems an even more impressive Olson emerges. This volume brings together all of Olson's work and extends the poetic accomplishment that influenced a generation.
Charles Olson was praised by his contemporaries and emulated by his successors. He was declared by William Carlos Williams to be "a major poet with a sweep of understanding of the world, a feeling for other men that staggers me." His indispensable essays, "Projective Verse" and "Human Universe," and his study of Melville, Call Me Ishmael, remain as fresh today as when they were written.
Charles Olson was praised by his contemporaries and emulated by his successors. He was declared by William Carlos Williams to be "a major poet with a sweep of understanding of the world, a feeling for other men that staggers me." His indispensable essays, "Projective Verse" and "Human Universe," and his study of Melville, Call Me Ishmael, remain as fresh today as when they were written.
- GenresPoetryLiterature
609 pages, Paperback
First published October 14, 1987
About the author
Charles Olson
141 books75 followersCharles Olson was a second generation American modernist poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York School, the Black Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance. Consequently, many postmodern groups, such as the poets of the Language School, include Olson as a primary and precedent figure. He described himself not so much as a poet or writer but as "an archeologist of morning."
Olson's first book was Call Me Ishmael (1947), a study of Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick which was a continuation of his M.A. thesis from Wesleyan University.[5] In Projective Verse (1950), Olson called for a poetic meter based on the breath of the poet and an open construction based on sound and the linking of perceptions rather than syntax and logic. The poem "The Kingfishers", first published in 1949 and collected in his first book of poetry, In Cold Hell, in Thicket (1953), is an application of the manifesto.
His second collection, The Distances, was published in 1960. Olson served as rector of the Black Mountain College from 1951 to 1956. During this period, the college supported work by John Cage, Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, Fielding Dawson, Cy Twombly, Jonathan Williams, Ed Dorn, Stan Brakhage and many other members of the 1950s American avant garde. Olson is listed as an influence on artists including Carolee Schneemann and James Tenney.[6]
Olson's reputation rests in the main on his complex, sometimes difficult poems such as "The Kingfishers", "In Cold Hell, in Thicket", and The Maximus Poems, work that tends to explore social, historical, and political concerns. His shorter verse, poems such as "Only The Red Fox, Only The Crow", "Other Than", "An Ode on Nativity", "Love", and "The Ring Of", manifest a sincere, original, accessible, emotionally powerful voice. "Letter 27 [withheld]" from The Maximus Poems weds Olson's lyric, historic, and aesthetic concerns. Olson coined the term postmodern in a letter of August 1951 to his friend and fellow poet, Robert Creeley.
In 1950, inspired by the example of Pound's Cantos (though Olson denied any direct relation between the two epics), Olson began writing The Maximus Poems, a project that was to remain unfinished at the time of his death. An exploration of American history in the broadest sense, Maximus is also an epic of place, Massachusetts and specifically the city of Gloucester where Olson had settled. Dogtown, the wild, rock-strewn centre of Cape Ann, next to Gloucester, is an important place in The Maximus Poems. (Olson used to write outside on a tree stump in Dogtown.) The whole work is also mediated through the voice of Maximus, based partly on Maximus of Tyre, an itinerant Greek philosopher, and partly on Olson himself. The final, unfinished volume imagines an ideal Gloucester in which communal values have replaced commercial ones.
Olson's first book was Call Me Ishmael (1947), a study of Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick which was a continuation of his M.A. thesis from Wesleyan University.[5] In Projective Verse (1950), Olson called for a poetic meter based on the breath of the poet and an open construction based on sound and the linking of perceptions rather than syntax and logic. The poem "The Kingfishers", first published in 1949 and collected in his first book of poetry, In Cold Hell, in Thicket (1953), is an application of the manifesto.
His second collection, The Distances, was published in 1960. Olson served as rector of the Black Mountain College from 1951 to 1956. During this period, the college supported work by John Cage, Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, Fielding Dawson, Cy Twombly, Jonathan Williams, Ed Dorn, Stan Brakhage and many other members of the 1950s American avant garde. Olson is listed as an influence on artists including Carolee Schneemann and James Tenney.[6]
Olson's reputation rests in the main on his complex, sometimes difficult poems such as "The Kingfishers", "In Cold Hell, in Thicket", and The Maximus Poems, work that tends to explore social, historical, and political concerns. His shorter verse, poems such as "Only The Red Fox, Only The Crow", "Other Than", "An Ode on Nativity", "Love", and "The Ring Of", manifest a sincere, original, accessible, emotionally powerful voice. "Letter 27 [withheld]" from The Maximus Poems weds Olson's lyric, historic, and aesthetic concerns. Olson coined the term postmodern in a letter of August 1951 to his friend and fellow poet, Robert Creeley.
In 1950, inspired by the example of Pound's Cantos (though Olson denied any direct relation between the two epics), Olson began writing The Maximus Poems, a project that was to remain unfinished at the time of his death. An exploration of American history in the broadest sense, Maximus is also an epic of place, Massachusetts and specifically the city of Gloucester where Olson had settled. Dogtown, the wild, rock-strewn centre of Cape Ann, next to Gloucester, is an important place in The Maximus Poems. (Olson used to write outside on a tree stump in Dogtown.) The whole work is also mediated through the voice of Maximus, based partly on Maximus of Tyre, an itinerant Greek philosopher, and partly on Olson himself. The final, unfinished volume imagines an ideal Gloucester in which communal values have replaced commercial ones.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 11, 2023
Admittedly did not understand a large large majority of this. From what I did understand, Olson is one of the great poet proponents of the working class and of America's death wish stemming from capitalism. His rage is so apparent on every page filled with odd postmodern wordplay and complex allegories and metaphors. This is poetry taken to another level never seen before him. From what I did not understand, well, I still loved it. The language is gorgeous and the originality of his style is a joy to just hear read aloud. My favorite would be (look at me being wholly unoriginal) The Kingfisher. Partially because it is a literal masterpiece but also likely since it's the one I read and reread the most. Olson really needs to be talked about more.
January 28, 2019
Beautiful. Difficult:
"Gather a body to me
like a bear. Take it on
my left leg and hold it off
for love-making, man or woman
boy or girl in the enormity
of the enjoyment that it is
flesh, that it is to be loved, that
I desire it, that without it
my whole body is a hoop
empty and like steel
to be iron to grasp
someone else in myself
like those arms which hold
all the staves together
and make a man, if now as cold and hot,
as a bear, out of me."
"Gather a body to me
like a bear. Take it on
my left leg and hold it off
for love-making, man or woman
boy or girl in the enormity
of the enjoyment that it is
flesh, that it is to be loved, that
I desire it, that without it
my whole body is a hoop
empty and like steel
to be iron to grasp
someone else in myself
like those arms which hold
all the staves together
and make a man, if now as cold and hot,
as a bear, out of me."
August 26, 2007
The poems Olson published in his lifetime were a fraction of what he wrote. In this volume, editor George Butterick interleafs nearly all the surviving typescripts with the poems from Olson's previously published collections, creating a giant single edition that runs to over 600 pages. On the plus side, you get the chance to discover a new Olson through reading his poems, most published here for the first time, in the order he wrote them. The downside is that the "historical" Olson, who along with Allen Ginsberg electrified American outsider poetry in the '50s and '60s, tends to get choked off in all the false starts, toss-offs, and unfinished fragments that few of his contemporaries ever saw.
Since the notes at the end don't give the page numbers of the poems they refer to, it's a hassle to sort out which poems appeared in which collections, if any. Butterick's thirty-year care and feeding of Olson's work has to be one of the greatest editorial romances of all time, and his openness in letting you decide which poems are good or not is democratic. But it also demands a lot of unnecessary work (why not a separate section of unpublished poems?) that might leave you wondering if Olson's worth the effort. But the risk of excess is true to the spirit of the poetry.
Since the notes at the end don't give the page numbers of the poems they refer to, it's a hassle to sort out which poems appeared in which collections, if any. Butterick's thirty-year care and feeding of Olson's work has to be one of the greatest editorial romances of all time, and his openness in letting you decide which poems are good or not is democratic. But it also demands a lot of unnecessary work (why not a separate section of unpublished poems?) that might leave you wondering if Olson's worth the effort. But the risk of excess is true to the spirit of the poetry.
October 2, 2023
Olson's poetry journeys into language, history and the human experience in a sprawling manner. His dedication to experimenting with form and his unique poetic style make his poems truly captivating. From "Maximus, to himself" to the contemplation found in "The Distances ", Olson's poems defy conventions and beckon readers on a introspective poetic voyage. His work serves as a testament, to the power of language and the lasting impact left by a poet who pushed the boundaries of verse. It is highly recommended for poetry enthusiasts and individuals who value the blend of intellect and emotion within literature.
June 6, 2023
What an ordeal!
July 30, 2007
Fabulous collection of Olson's poems (not including Maximus). To see it all spread out here, how enormous his concerns were (historical, ecological, mythic, political), one almost forgot how good Olson's poems were technically. I had spent so much time trying to decipher Maximus that I had forgotten how satisfying the shorter poems were. The Distances, for example, The Librarian, The Lordly & Isolate Satyrs, lots of very short ones, too. The book itself is a wonder, too. Typographically, the paper selected, etc. A permanent kind of collection, all over the place, as was Olson himself.
Reading these poems helps me forgive what a pushy and arrogant critic he was. Not that I don't sometimes get on with what he had to say, I always feel resistant to having Olson shove it down my throat (the way Olson writes prose is as if he feels he has to force you to accept his assertions, when I am more comfortable with a writer trying to persuade me, in a more friendly manner).
Magnificent.
Reading these poems helps me forgive what a pushy and arrogant critic he was. Not that I don't sometimes get on with what he had to say, I always feel resistant to having Olson shove it down my throat (the way Olson writes prose is as if he feels he has to force you to accept his assertions, when I am more comfortable with a writer trying to persuade me, in a more friendly manner).
Magnificent.
December 25, 2021
This enormous collection of Olson’s work displays the range of the poet’s talent, from solipsistic musings to dogmatic sloganeering to the objectivist experiments that established the Black Mountain School and helped to define postmodern sensibility.
Favorite Poems:
“A Lustrum for You, E.P.”
“These Days”
“her skin / covered me . . .”
Favorite Poems:
“A Lustrum for You, E.P.”
“These Days”
“her skin / covered me . . .”
January 16, 2010
Sue and Seamus gave us this book after our visit to Gloucester. I don't really know what to make of most of it, but i like it. For some reason, the Fable for Slumber resonated. I love that he can speak of so much that's 'classical' and all the while in the mechanic's garage
May 17, 2011
The collection of poems is good, but given Olson's insistence on the importance of layout to the meaning of the poem, it's unfortunate that it is impossible to tell how the original poems would have appeared.
March 17, 2015
(2.2/5.0) Olson is constantly shattering barriers to expression and that means that antecedent forms and traditions are his sounding boards rather than his foundations-- his work is always bold, but only occasionally interesting.
November 26, 2008
This is everything he has ever penned-a true underestimated master of verse. A must have for any student of poetry
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews