Date of Award

1975

Document Type

Senior Scholars Paper (Colby Access Only)

Department

Colby College. English Dept.

Advisor(s)

Robert Gillespie

Second Advisor

George Maier

Abstract

The majority of the poems in this collection have been written this academic year under the supervision of Bob Gillespie. Some of them, however, were written before this and are included at the beginning of the collection for the purpose of comparison. I began the year writing what may be called "nature poems" and soon found myself in a rut. In an attempt to do something new, I turned to the "Sewer Poems" in the early Fall of 1974. These poems come out of my experience as a construction worker in Waterville last summer. After exhausting what inspiration I had for them, I began to write a few poems which one could label political or American history poems. These poems ("Winter", "Fall", "Back When Men Were") are longer and different from anything I had previously attempted. In January I worked with Ken McClane as my advisor. This was an interesting aspect of my Senior Scholar as I was suddenly thrust into an entirely different teacher-student relationship, as well as being exposed to a new view of my poetry. Again I tried new types of things. I can say now, I was influenced by Ken's type of poetry just as I inevitably was by that of Bob Gillespie. I tried writing longer more rambling poems with less control of the single image, and less of the poem itself. "Train" is a good example of that influence on me. In the Spring I attempted to integrate the two ideas of poetry. I returned to nature imagery: however, I attempted to open the poems to greater possibilities of meaning and subject. The poetry of this time period develops the theme of love and loss, and reconciliation. I don't believe there is a final reconciliation or ending to this collection of poems. I look to the future.

Keywords

Poems

Comments

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