Poetic Creation

Though perhaps best known for his 1947 Pulitzer Prize winning novel All the Kings Men, Robert Penn Warrens final phase of poetry from the 1960s through the 1980s demonstrates a maturity of thought not previously seen in his work. By wrestling with the fundamental questions of language and articulation throughout his work in this period, Warren seeks to understand how the poet can say the unsayable.Poetic Creation is John C. Van Dykes plunge into this liminal moment in Warrens career, exploring Warrens poetry from his 1969 Audubon: A Vision through his later works. By reading this late poetry in light of several of Warrens critical essaysmost notably his work on Coleridges Rime of the Ancient MarinerVan Dyke traces the development of Warrens struggle with language through his unrelenting attention to the act of poetic creation itself. Warrens open confrontation with language is marked by a shift from utilizing language as a tool toward understanding it as a play of difference, locating his later poetic creation within a postmodern discourse on language and the unsayable. Questions about the power and limitations of language color Warrens later poetry with an earnest struggle only hinted at in his earlier works. Poetic Creation reads Robert Penn Warrens later poetry in a unique way that places his work at the heart of contemporary discourses on language and the unsayable. Van Dyke invites the reader to return to the poems themselves to participate in Warrens pursuit of poetrys unique power to speak the unsayable into the world.