0 Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present
it is already there: the starting place. All day long forms keep droning that x=x,
every fulfilled expectation makes a form.... It is the exception that exhilarates
and inspires.” Students may wish to analyze the formal aspects of his poetry.
Pinsky often uses regular poetic form, whether in the traditional sense, as in a
“Sonnet” from The Want Bone, or in a self-imposed sense, as in “Rhyme” from
Gulf Music, in which he rhymes end words across stanzas instead of within
them. While Pinsky does not shy away from strict forms, he is not always
consistent. For instance, the strict form of “Sonnet,” is preceded by “The Night
Game,” a narrative in free verse. What role do forms play in Pinsky’s poetry?
When using traditional forms, what rules does Pinsky break and to what
effect? Does he include “the exception that exhilarates and inspires”? What is
the relationship between form and content in Pinksy’s work? Sources useful for
this topic include Pinsky’s The Sounds of Poetry and the essays by Logenbrack,
Barry Goldensohn, and Tony Hoagland.
- In interviews Pinsky addresses the Judaism of his childhood and its subse-
quent influence; he observes that “religion is a kind of surrounding reality,
no more ‘losable’ in its own terms than the color of your eyes, or the force of
gravity” (Talking with Poets, p. 25). Students might wish to consider to what
degree Pinsky’s work is influenced by Judaism. While his earliest works seem
to avoid the subject, later collections note the poet’s Jewish identity. In the
title poem of History of My Heart, for example, Jewish identity is a theme
running throughout as the narrator contemplates how it fits both inside and
outside mainstream American culture. In “The Night Game” he pays hom-
age to Jewish southpaw Sandy Koufax, who refused to pitch a World Series
game because it fell on Yom Kippur. Unnamed in the poem, he is a hero not
for Jews only but for all Americans. Pinsky also pays attention to historic
and religious Judaism in his book of prose The Life of David, a creative
chronicle of ancient King David. For starting points, students can consult
the interview by Ben Downing and Daniel Kunitz and the essay by Charles
S. Berger.
- Though there is a serious tone to his work in terms of subject matter and
form, humor is often at play in Pinsky’s poetry, an approach that makes it
more accessible and its darker themes more approachable. Consider the widely
anthologized “ABC,” which is a short meditation on death. The form, however,
lightens the tone. Each word begins with the next letter in the alphabet (the
first line begins: “Any body can die, evidently.. .”), thus providing a play-
ful context in which to approach the topic. “Impossible to Tell,” too, utilizes
humor, in more-overt ways. An elegy, the poem interweaves two jokes in its
remembrance of Elliot Gilbert, a friend who died prematurely. Pinsky jux-
taposes incongruous subject matter and diction for humorous effect in “The
Haunted Ruin” when he describes a computer using an ominous tone and
language. Other poems to consider include “Poem of Disconnected Parts”
and those in Explanation of America. How does humor help to convey darker
themes? Students may find it helpful to consult secondary sources on literary
uses of humor such as the entry on poetry in the Encyclopedia of 20th-Century
American Humor, edited by Alleen Nilsen and Don L. F. Nilsen (Phoenix,
