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Contradictions
Contradictions calls into question perspective, beginning with the very words we use to communicate. A master of poetic form, Alfred Corn draws on (and improvises against) metrical traditions to verbally re-enact visual art and jazz; to see the world from multiple (and sometimes opposing) viewpoints; and to illuminate cultural nuances from religious history to present-day Chelsea in New York City. Corn, a highly respected art critic, allows visual arts to play a pivotal role in this collection. In his long poem "Seeing All the Vermeers" he "No matter how many years or flights / it took, I’d see all of Vermeer. . . ." Through wars and relationships, self-discovery and several decades, he pursues them all—to see each canvas, to understand the paintings, and to stand with his fellow wearing Nikes, Levis, parkas; students, grizzled veterans,
young mothers, teachers, painters—awestruck, whispering
Heavens! Just look at that! . . . "Transience and loss are the reigning themes of our day," says Corn, "but I want to move beyond loss and discover what can be found on the other side of it." Like other progressive poets, Corn sees personal experience, poetry, and political action as a continuum, and he regards artistic freedom as incomplete until all citizens are fully enfranchised. "Corn attains a calm in which our attention is drawn not to the individual note of brilliance but to the grace of the whole."— The Village Voice Alfred Corn is the author of eight books of poetry, a novel, a study of prosody, and a collection of essays. As an art critic, he writes for Art in America and ARTNews ; his poems appear regularly in The New Yorker, The Nation , and The New Republic . He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the NEA and has taught at Yale, UCLA, and Columbia University.
young mothers, teachers, painters—awestruck, whispering
Heavens! Just look at that! . . . "Transience and loss are the reigning themes of our day," says Corn, "but I want to move beyond loss and discover what can be found on the other side of it." Like other progressive poets, Corn sees personal experience, poetry, and political action as a continuum, and he regards artistic freedom as incomplete until all citizens are fully enfranchised. "Corn attains a calm in which our attention is drawn not to the individual note of brilliance but to the grace of the whole."— The Village Voice Alfred Corn is the author of eight books of poetry, a novel, a study of prosody, and a collection of essays. As an art critic, he writes for Art in America and ARTNews ; his poems appear regularly in The New Yorker, The Nation , and The New Republic . He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the NEA and has taught at Yale, UCLA, and Columbia University.
- GenresPoetry
112 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2002
About the author
Alfred Corn
63 books10 followersAlfred Corn was born in Bainbridge, Georgia, in 1943. He grew up in Valdosta, Georgia, and received his B.A. in French literature from Emory University in 1965. He was awarded an M.A. in French literature from Columbia University in 1967, his degree work including a year spent in Paris on a Fulbright Fellowship and two years of teaching in the French Department at Columbia College.
His first book of poems, All Roads at Once, appeared in 1976, followed by A Call in the Midst of the Crowd (1978), The Various Light (1980), Notes from a Child of Paradise (1984), The West Door (1988), and Autobiographies (1992). His seventh book of poems, titled Present, appeared in 1997, along with the novel Part of His Story. Stake: Selected Poems, 1972-1992, appeared in 1999, followed by Contradictions in 2002, which was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award.
Corn has also published a collection of critical essays titled The Metamorphoses of Metaphor (1989), The Poem’s Heartbeat (1997), and a work of art criticism, Aaron Rose Photographs (Abrams, 2001). A frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review and The Nation, he also writes art criticism for Art in America and ARTnews magazines.
Corn has received fellowships and prizes from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Academy of American Poets, and the Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine.
He has taught at the City University of New York, Yale, Connecticut College, the University of Cincinnati, U.C.L.A., Ohio State University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Tulsa.
His first book of poems, All Roads at Once, appeared in 1976, followed by A Call in the Midst of the Crowd (1978), The Various Light (1980), Notes from a Child of Paradise (1984), The West Door (1988), and Autobiographies (1992). His seventh book of poems, titled Present, appeared in 1997, along with the novel Part of His Story. Stake: Selected Poems, 1972-1992, appeared in 1999, followed by Contradictions in 2002, which was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award.
Corn has also published a collection of critical essays titled The Metamorphoses of Metaphor (1989), The Poem’s Heartbeat (1997), and a work of art criticism, Aaron Rose Photographs (Abrams, 2001). A frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review and The Nation, he also writes art criticism for Art in America and ARTnews magazines.
Corn has received fellowships and prizes from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Academy of American Poets, and the Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine.
He has taught at the City University of New York, Yale, Connecticut College, the University of Cincinnati, U.C.L.A., Ohio State University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Tulsa.
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