Author Archives: Dana Allen

The Broken Body Politic

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Dana Allen

My paper topic has proved quite perplexing. While relating Whitman and Ginsberg in class didn’t seem so hard, there is surprisingly little literary criticism is done comparing the two men. Whitman’s legacy is complex and multifaceted to say the least; … Continue reading →

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The Voice of a Rainstorm

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Dana Allen

60 pages into Specimen Days and I wish I had started reading earlier! Cunningham is just as good as I remembered him, his prose is rich and precisely descriptive, his characters are compelling and almost disturbingly empathetic. And most of … Continue reading →

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Intimacy and Isolation

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Dana Allen

The kind of circular vision of connectivity that Juliana Spahr presents in her poetry is one that I have only recently come realize and accept. Raised in a Christ-centered home and school, I learned to see humans as God’s treasured … Continue reading →

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Clarity in the Sense of Silence

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Dana Allen

Today’s class discussion about “objectivism” really got me thinking, especially because so many people has responses that were different from my own initial thoughts of what it means to be an objective poet. One thing that stood out to me … Continue reading →

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“Without self acceptance there can be no acceptance of other souls”

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Dana Allen

This title of this blog post comes from a quote from Alan Ginsberg’s letter that Professor Z posted earlier tonight. I love the tone of the letter, so matter-of-fact and unabashed. So Whitmanian. Ginsberg would rather explain his whole thought … Continue reading →

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And where are the lilacs?

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Dana Allen

Whitman’s lilacs are one of the most enduring poetic symbols of the modern age; lilacs in a poem are never just lilacs. Traditionally, lilacs signal the coming of Spring as one of the earliest blooming flowers and represent youthful innocence … Continue reading →

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Whitman and Modernism

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Dana Allen

Since I first picked up a Virginia Woolf novel, modernism has been my favorite literary genre. While I enjoyed reading growing up, if I had to even look at Great Expectations or Pilgrim’s Progress one more time I was sure … Continue reading →

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Calhoun’s Real Monument

Posted on September 8, 2010 by Dana Allen

While trying to come up with an idea for this blog post, I decided to flip through some of Whitman’s prose and see if anything caught my eye. I noticed a section called “Calhoun’s Real Monument” in Specimen Days, and … Continue reading →

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meeting Whitman

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Dana Allen

In previous English classes, I have only studied Walt Whitman very topically, a few stanzas here and there, a few famous lines plucked from the wealth of wisdom Whitman saw himself as offering. In class, Professor Z spoke about Whitman’s … Continue reading →

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