How Suburbs changed Poetry Forever

     The migration from urban areas to suburban developments outside the major cities of America drastically changed the landscape of the country. The growth of these developments in the early to mid-1900’s divided the vast countryside, and essentially pushed the order of a city to its surrounding regions. Writer’s and artist of the time reacted to this changed in different ways. In an article entitled “In the American Grid: Modern Poetry and the Suburbs” Peter Monacell of University of Missouri talks about just that reaction. His piece covers four Modernist poets (Hart Crane, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, and Louis Zukofsky) and how suburbanization affected their work in terms of using the pastoral form

Moacell opens his argument with looking at Hart Crane’s sequence the Bridge. In it, Hart paints the picture that suburbanization is the sign of a decaying America. Gone are the days of Nature. All that is left is the dividing up of what was vast and free, so it can be in turn consumed as a commodity. The real American identity is one of material goods (Monacell 123).  In Cranes mind, individual expression is killed by the overwhelming conformity that pops up alongside the new neighborhoods.

William Carlos Williams is a different story. He on the other hand views suburbia through a different lens, as Monacell states “explores a fantasy of suburban identity in which individual identity can thrive” (125). Williams worked within the confines of Rutherford, NJ to create what Raymond Williams called “counter pastoral” poems. In these poems he would use things going on around him to critique suburban living, such as looking at rural poverty which can be seen in the poem “To Elsie” (Monacell 130).

Wallace Stevens became interested in observing the effects of suburbanization via poetry. Stevens made up a vision of suburbia, named oxide, which he modeled after his own neighborhood in Hartford, CT (Moacell 133). In his work, he became increasing interested how spatial relation worked in the modern suburbs; the gridding off of everyone into their own box. 

Louis Zukofsky never actually lived in a suburb. He lived in New York City most of his life, but the movement to suburbs was one that interested him very much. His work painted the suburbs in a very negative light. He viewed them through a dystopian lens that sees the suburbs as conforming to the machine as seen in his poem “A Song for the Year’s End”.

Suburban America is not often thought of as a place that is ripe with creativity. Its conforming qualities easily white washed the different like the picket fences that lined its yards. It was for some however a source of inspiration that fostered works of art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_2lGkEU4Xs