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Four Lectures
Originally published in the 1980s, Rodferer's four long poems are milestones in American avant garde poetry. After over fifty years out of print, the master's poetic magnum opus is available again.
Stephen Rodefer was one of the most innovative and singular of American poets, a student of Charles Olson’s often associated with the Language poets but whose eclectic, energetic verse defies categorization and embraces a worldly lyricism uniquely his own. Four Lectures is widely considered to be his masterpiece, a book of four long poems that explore the radical possibilities of language through a generous, intimate collage of the sights and sounds, the words and images that form the poet’s world. Making freewheeling reference to Shakespeare and Sappho, Looney Tunes and Ethel Waters, among others, Rodefer boldly reimagines the modern philosophical poem, exemplified by Four Quartets and Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror, for a new and fragmentary age. First published in 1982 by Geoffrey Young’s legendary press The Figures and long beloved by readers, these witty, playful poems have been unavailable in a single volume for nearly half a century. This new edition will reproduce the layout of the original, in which the material presentation of words on the page is integral to the meaning of the poem. Of Four Lectures, Ron Silliman “Philosopher-harlequin, the poet speaks plainly, having just now invented the line. What other writer can give us this much of the real.”
Stephen Rodefer was one of the most innovative and singular of American poets, a student of Charles Olson’s often associated with the Language poets but whose eclectic, energetic verse defies categorization and embraces a worldly lyricism uniquely his own. Four Lectures is widely considered to be his masterpiece, a book of four long poems that explore the radical possibilities of language through a generous, intimate collage of the sights and sounds, the words and images that form the poet’s world. Making freewheeling reference to Shakespeare and Sappho, Looney Tunes and Ethel Waters, among others, Rodefer boldly reimagines the modern philosophical poem, exemplified by Four Quartets and Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror, for a new and fragmentary age. First published in 1982 by Geoffrey Young’s legendary press The Figures and long beloved by readers, these witty, playful poems have been unavailable in a single volume for nearly half a century. This new edition will reproduce the layout of the original, in which the material presentation of words on the page is integral to the meaning of the poem. Of Four Lectures, Ron Silliman “Philosopher-harlequin, the poet speaks plainly, having just now invented the line. What other writer can give us this much of the real.”
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 24, 2012
LONG FORM: I admire Rodefer’s writing as much as the next poet of my age, place, and proximity to Language, plus I knew him a little at Cambridge the year he arrived. Some of Rodefer’s earlier work in One or Two Poems from the White World and his extraordinary VILLON (which is later I think than Four Lectures) send the ball further for me though than these do. The insistent pacing, Borscht Belty antic tone, and unremittingly block-like textual units exhaust me pretty quickly, even where they show glints of the waspish aesthete through the sober Langpo threads, which never seemed to fit Rodefer as naturally as they do some others. I have friends who swear by this book, so I’ve tried and tried, but the prodigious intelligence, wit, and charisma I see here I find in greater concentration in some of his other collections. Has anyone seen his Baudelaire yet?
SHORT FORM: “Just the right hint of everything,
pushed through a sieve.”
SHORT FORM: “Just the right hint of everything,
pushed through a sieve.”
July 5, 2019
Imagination, association and language - what's the opposite of an utter and complete boggling catastrophe? that's sort of how these 4 long irreducible poems come off. And for all of their wild, earnest thought, assembled in block like marching 15 line stanzas in contrast. Preceded by the poet's manifesto for poetry, brilliance.
December 7, 2007
epic, eminent, vertiginous lexic falls and flourish, finished with gymnastic upward-thrown hand celebrants. culture and its wide-thrown discursive markers. the man himself. in words.
May 2, 2025
Originally published in 1982:
"Marble is no longer the style of course. Our era promises to make the late Roman look small time, if not benign. In a world in which there are more photographs than there are bricks, can there be more pictures than there are places? I'm told that soon there will be more people living than have ever died. In innumerable ways we exist in an incomprehensible age. It is entirely unnecessary for this argument (though ultimate) to mention nuclear weapons. The signs are otherwise quite enough" (2).
"Most of the fish I have known if they *had* had bicycles wouldn't have been eaten" (12).
"The opportunities of this world have become so scarce
that people have stopped applying for them.
The result is that periods of deprivation
have become much longer. People who used to spend
a few weeks or a month seeking a job or a place
to live, or a lover, now are looking for years,
or not bothering to look at all because they know
it's not there, or it's too expensive, or they can't
have it because they haven't already got it.
When breakdowns occur under this kind of UPPED ANTE
(or you could say people are sitting at a table where
there are no longer any cards being dealt),
they are likely to be much more severe —
it is altogether a cruel and unusual turn of events,
but out of it we should not expect a new Constitution" (14).
"Let's go AER LINGUS. Let's get sleepy and fuck. People want you to run into them.
When you can't tell whether someone is gay or just well dressed, you know you're in
a fancy part of town" (50).
"The only good poem is the one that's read" (52).
""Do birds have art? or do they just sing what comes
to mind?" (55).
"Marble is no longer the style of course. Our era promises to make the late Roman look small time, if not benign. In a world in which there are more photographs than there are bricks, can there be more pictures than there are places? I'm told that soon there will be more people living than have ever died. In innumerable ways we exist in an incomprehensible age. It is entirely unnecessary for this argument (though ultimate) to mention nuclear weapons. The signs are otherwise quite enough" (2).
"Most of the fish I have known if they *had* had bicycles wouldn't have been eaten" (12).
"The opportunities of this world have become so scarce
that people have stopped applying for them.
The result is that periods of deprivation
have become much longer. People who used to spend
a few weeks or a month seeking a job or a place
to live, or a lover, now are looking for years,
or not bothering to look at all because they know
it's not there, or it's too expensive, or they can't
have it because they haven't already got it.
When breakdowns occur under this kind of UPPED ANTE
(or you could say people are sitting at a table where
there are no longer any cards being dealt),
they are likely to be much more severe —
it is altogether a cruel and unusual turn of events,
but out of it we should not expect a new Constitution" (14).
"Let's go AER LINGUS. Let's get sleepy and fuck. People want you to run into them.
When you can't tell whether someone is gay or just well dressed, you know you're in
a fancy part of town" (50).
"The only good poem is the one that's read" (52).
""Do birds have art? or do they just sing what comes
to mind?" (55).
April 17, 2025
An exegesis of the swelteringly omnipresent urtext the American city has inflicted upon its occupants. Keystone poetic macrocephalic expulsion.
May 14, 2025
I don’t know what that was, but it was hypnotic, funny, and hinted at depth. Strange and fantastic.
June 1, 2025
found thanks to Michael Robbins recent review of the new NYRB edition. feels fresh 40 years later.
April 7, 2010
His best book, and one of the best books of poetry published in the last thirty years by an American. Hilariously, savagely thoughtful. Thanks, Rodefer.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews