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Collected Works
"The Brontës had their moors, I have my marshes," Lorine Niedecker wrote of flood-prone Black Hawk Island in Wisconsin, where she lived most of her life. Her life by water, as she called it, could not have been further removed from the avant-garde poetry scene where she also made a home. Niedecker is one of the most important poets of her generation and an essential member of the Objectivist circle. Her work attracted high praise from her peers--Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, Louis Zukofsky, Cid Corman, Clayton Eshleman--with whom she exchanged life-sustaining letters. Niedecker was also a major woman poet who interrogated issues of gender, domesticity, work, marriage, and sexual politics long before the modern feminist movement. Her marginal status, both geographically and as a woman, translates into a major poetry.
Niedecker's lyric voice is one of the most subtle and sensuous of the twentieth century. Her ear is constantly alive to sounds of nature, oddities of vernacular speech, textures of vowels and consonants. Often compared to Emily Dickinson, Niedecker writes a poetry of wit and emotion, cosmopolitan experimentation and down-home American speech.
This much-anticipated volume presents all of Niedecker's surviving poetry, plays, and creative prose in the sequence of their composition. It includes many poems previously unpublished in book form plus all of Niedecker's surviving 1930s surrealist work and her 1936-46 folk poetry, bringing to light the formative experimental phases of her early career. With an introduction that offers an account of the poet's life and notes that provide detailed textual information, this book will be the definitive reader's and scholar's edition of Niedecker's work.
Niedecker's lyric voice is one of the most subtle and sensuous of the twentieth century. Her ear is constantly alive to sounds of nature, oddities of vernacular speech, textures of vowels and consonants. Often compared to Emily Dickinson, Niedecker writes a poetry of wit and emotion, cosmopolitan experimentation and down-home American speech.
This much-anticipated volume presents all of Niedecker's surviving poetry, plays, and creative prose in the sequence of their composition. It includes many poems previously unpublished in book form plus all of Niedecker's surviving 1930s surrealist work and her 1936-46 folk poetry, bringing to light the formative experimental phases of her early career. With an introduction that offers an account of the poet's life and notes that provide detailed textual information, this book will be the definitive reader's and scholar's edition of Niedecker's work.
466 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
35 people are currently reading
1506 people want to read
About the author
Lorine Niedecker
26 books52 followersNiedecker's earliest poetry was marked by her reading of the Imagists, whose work she greatly admired and of surrealism. In 1931, she read the Objectivist issue of Poetry. She was fascinated by what she saw and immediately wrote to Louis Zukofsky, who had edited the issue, sending him her latest poems. This was the beginning of what proved to be a most important relationship for her development as a poet.
Zukofsky suggested sending them to Poetry, where they were accepted for publication. Suddenly, Niedecker found herself in direct contact with the American poetic avant-garde. Near the end of 1933, Niedecker visited Zukofsky in New York City for the first time and became pregnant with his child. He insisted that she have an abortion, which she did, although they remained friends and continued to carry on a mutually beneficial correspondence following Niedecker's return to Fort Atkinson.
From the mid 1930s, Niedecker moved away from surrealism and started writing poems that engaged more directly with social and political realities and on her own immediate rural surroundings. Her first book, New Goose
Niedecker was not to publish another book for fifteen years. In 1949, she began work on a poem sequence called For Paul, named for Zukofsky's son. Unfortunately, Zukofsky was uncomfortable with what he viewed as the overly personal and intrusive nature of the content of the 72 poems she eventually collected under this title and discouraged publication. Partly because of her geographical isolation, even magazine publication was not easily available and in 1955 she claimed that she had published work only six times in the previous ten years.
Zukofsky suggested sending them to Poetry, where they were accepted for publication. Suddenly, Niedecker found herself in direct contact with the American poetic avant-garde. Near the end of 1933, Niedecker visited Zukofsky in New York City for the first time and became pregnant with his child. He insisted that she have an abortion, which she did, although they remained friends and continued to carry on a mutually beneficial correspondence following Niedecker's return to Fort Atkinson.
From the mid 1930s, Niedecker moved away from surrealism and started writing poems that engaged more directly with social and political realities and on her own immediate rural surroundings. Her first book, New Goose
Niedecker was not to publish another book for fifteen years. In 1949, she began work on a poem sequence called For Paul, named for Zukofsky's son. Unfortunately, Zukofsky was uncomfortable with what he viewed as the overly personal and intrusive nature of the content of the 72 poems she eventually collected under this title and discouraged publication. Partly because of her geographical isolation, even magazine publication was not easily available and in 1955 she claimed that she had published work only six times in the previous ten years.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
April 12, 2024
An Objectivist Poet From Wisconsin
I first learned of Lorine Niedecker (1903 -- 1970) from reading a selection of her poetry in Volume 2 of the Library of America's Anthology of American Poetry of the Twentieth Century. I was intrigued by the restrained, simple, and succinct character of the poems for two reasons. First, they reminded me of poetry I knew: of the work of Charles Reznikoff, in particular, and of his fellow-objectivist poets, Louis Zukofsky, George Oppen, and W.C. Williams. I later learned, of course, that Niedecker knew these writers, and was close to them. She was particularly close to Louis Zukofsky, with whom she carried on a forty year correspondence and had a brief affair.
I was also intrigued when I learned that Lorine Niedecker spent most of her life in the small town of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, which is approximately mid-way between Milwaukee and Madison. She lived on a small island called Black Hawk Island outside the town where her family rented cabins and fished. Much of her life was spent in poverty and for several years she was employed scrubbing floors in the local hospital. Most of the poets with whom Niedecker was associated lived in New York City. Although she visited New York City and spent time with Zukofsky, for the most part she learned and practiced her art by herself.
I was familiar with Fort Atkinson because I lived for a short time in my early 20's in Jefferson, Wisconsin, an even smaller town just adjacent to Fort Atkinson. I was there briefly in the early 1970's, just after Niedecker's death (She lived in Milwaukee at the time.) and I don't remember hearing anything about her. Today the town of Fort Atkinson and the local library where Niedecker worked for a time are active in preserving her memory. I was moved to discover the work of this outstanding modernist poet who lived in obscurity in an area with which I was familiar.
I was grateful to find this collected edition of Niedecker's works edited by Jenny Penberthy, Professor of English at Capilano College, Vancouver. Ms. Penberthy has also edited a recently-published collection of letters between Niedecker and Zukofsky together with a book of critical essays: "Lorine Niedecker: Woman and Poet". This collected edition of Niedecker's poetry is attractively put togther, includes good notes and a listing of Niedecker's published volumes, and begins with an informative introduction by Ms. Penberthy to Niedecker's life and work. The poems are arranged chronologically. The book includes Niedecker's early efforts and also includes some important prose and radio pieces, including the short work "Switchboard Girl" and a radio adaption of Faulkner's "As I lay dying." Ms. Penberthy has done a great service in making Niedecker's work available.
Much of Niedecker's early work was as a folk-poet. In 1946, she published a collection of 80 short poems called "New Goose", which was based on the rhythms of the Mother Goose nursery rhymes. These poems describe life in rural Wisconsin and show a strong sense of political activism -- in common with Zukofsky. They point to the injustices and hardships Niedecker found in war, the Depression, and a capitalist economy. A subsequent collection of early poems was titled "For Paul", named after Zukofsky's young son, and featuring meditations on music, art, and the world of nature.
Niedecker's later poetry becomes much more spare and formal. She tended to write short poems, in five lines with irregular feet. She was influenced by Haiku and by Chinese poetry aw well as by her fellow-objectivists. These poems are autobiographical, and include many scenes of life on Black Hawk Island. The longest of these poems is titled "Paean to Place". Later poems also describe the Lake Superior area around Sault Ste. Marie which Niedecker visited with her husband whom she married late in life. She also grew increasingly interested in historical themes and wrote poetry about Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Adlai Stevenson, and Charles Darwin, among others. These poems integrate extensively quotations from their subjects into the text of the poems.
Niedecker's poems include irony, reflection, and a deep sense of place. They show a person who had learned to be alone with herself. Here is a short untitled poem by Niedecker (p. 157) which I hope will encourage you to read more.
"The death of my poor father
leaves debts
and two small houses.
To settle this estate
a thousand fees arise--
I enrich the law.
Before my own death is certified,
recorded, final judgement
judged
Taxes taxed
I shall own a book
of old Chinese poems
and binoculars
to probe the river
trees."
This is a collection of the works of an American poet who deserves to be read and remembered.
Robin Friedman
I first learned of Lorine Niedecker (1903 -- 1970) from reading a selection of her poetry in Volume 2 of the Library of America's Anthology of American Poetry of the Twentieth Century. I was intrigued by the restrained, simple, and succinct character of the poems for two reasons. First, they reminded me of poetry I knew: of the work of Charles Reznikoff, in particular, and of his fellow-objectivist poets, Louis Zukofsky, George Oppen, and W.C. Williams. I later learned, of course, that Niedecker knew these writers, and was close to them. She was particularly close to Louis Zukofsky, with whom she carried on a forty year correspondence and had a brief affair.
I was also intrigued when I learned that Lorine Niedecker spent most of her life in the small town of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, which is approximately mid-way between Milwaukee and Madison. She lived on a small island called Black Hawk Island outside the town where her family rented cabins and fished. Much of her life was spent in poverty and for several years she was employed scrubbing floors in the local hospital. Most of the poets with whom Niedecker was associated lived in New York City. Although she visited New York City and spent time with Zukofsky, for the most part she learned and practiced her art by herself.
I was familiar with Fort Atkinson because I lived for a short time in my early 20's in Jefferson, Wisconsin, an even smaller town just adjacent to Fort Atkinson. I was there briefly in the early 1970's, just after Niedecker's death (She lived in Milwaukee at the time.) and I don't remember hearing anything about her. Today the town of Fort Atkinson and the local library where Niedecker worked for a time are active in preserving her memory. I was moved to discover the work of this outstanding modernist poet who lived in obscurity in an area with which I was familiar.
I was grateful to find this collected edition of Niedecker's works edited by Jenny Penberthy, Professor of English at Capilano College, Vancouver. Ms. Penberthy has also edited a recently-published collection of letters between Niedecker and Zukofsky together with a book of critical essays: "Lorine Niedecker: Woman and Poet". This collected edition of Niedecker's poetry is attractively put togther, includes good notes and a listing of Niedecker's published volumes, and begins with an informative introduction by Ms. Penberthy to Niedecker's life and work. The poems are arranged chronologically. The book includes Niedecker's early efforts and also includes some important prose and radio pieces, including the short work "Switchboard Girl" and a radio adaption of Faulkner's "As I lay dying." Ms. Penberthy has done a great service in making Niedecker's work available.
Much of Niedecker's early work was as a folk-poet. In 1946, she published a collection of 80 short poems called "New Goose", which was based on the rhythms of the Mother Goose nursery rhymes. These poems describe life in rural Wisconsin and show a strong sense of political activism -- in common with Zukofsky. They point to the injustices and hardships Niedecker found in war, the Depression, and a capitalist economy. A subsequent collection of early poems was titled "For Paul", named after Zukofsky's young son, and featuring meditations on music, art, and the world of nature.
Niedecker's later poetry becomes much more spare and formal. She tended to write short poems, in five lines with irregular feet. She was influenced by Haiku and by Chinese poetry aw well as by her fellow-objectivists. These poems are autobiographical, and include many scenes of life on Black Hawk Island. The longest of these poems is titled "Paean to Place". Later poems also describe the Lake Superior area around Sault Ste. Marie which Niedecker visited with her husband whom she married late in life. She also grew increasingly interested in historical themes and wrote poetry about Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Adlai Stevenson, and Charles Darwin, among others. These poems integrate extensively quotations from their subjects into the text of the poems.
Niedecker's poems include irony, reflection, and a deep sense of place. They show a person who had learned to be alone with herself. Here is a short untitled poem by Niedecker (p. 157) which I hope will encourage you to read more.
"The death of my poor father
leaves debts
and two small houses.
To settle this estate
a thousand fees arise--
I enrich the law.
Before my own death is certified,
recorded, final judgement
judged
Taxes taxed
I shall own a book
of old Chinese poems
and binoculars
to probe the river
trees."
This is a collection of the works of an American poet who deserves to be read and remembered.
Robin Friedman
June 5, 2010
Lorine Niedecker lived a life as spare as Emily Dickinson's but without the isolation. She did marry late in life, and had contact with a few poets who championed her poetry and influenced her development. That spare poetry reminds me of Dickinson in its ability to jar the reader awake to the world she writes about. Her poems are short and sharp enough to slice existence into pieces you can focus on and hold in the mind--this is what it is, what I see is what you'll find. Follow me. One section is called "Homemade/Handmade Poems." They do have that feel, as of folk poems. The nature she recretes is that of the lake country of rural Wisconsin. The years she and the reader most vividly experience are the 30s, when she was at the peak of her powers, and make me want to call them folk poems. Their beauty and succinctness remind me of haiku. In fact, Niedecker several times mentioned Basho, a Japanese master of the form. Consider the simple beauty here: The man of law/on the uses/of grief//The poet/on the law/of the oak leaf.
December 28, 2007
I've been waiting for you, book.
this gets five stars because I couldn't give it seven.
Just buy it already! At least pick it up and look at "Next Year or I Fly My Rounds Tempestuous" - described in the introduction as "the gift-book palimpsest, which superimposes her own holograph writings onto the conventionally printed pocket calendar. Ash she said in a letter to Mary Hoard, 'This would of course be what no one else has written - else why write?'"
this gets five stars because I couldn't give it seven.
Just buy it already! At least pick it up and look at "Next Year or I Fly My Rounds Tempestuous" - described in the introduction as "the gift-book palimpsest, which superimposes her own holograph writings onto the conventionally printed pocket calendar. Ash she said in a letter to Mary Hoard, 'This would of course be what no one else has written - else why write?'"
November 16, 2019
My life is hung up
in the flood
a wave-blurred
portrait
Don't fall in love
with this face—
it no longer exists
in water
we cannot fish
August 13, 2025
A great intro to this marvelous poet, but lacks significant commentary on the content of the poems, and instead focuses mostly on the writing process. This book should be expanded.
Read
May 15, 2023Lorine Niedecker’s pomes are crafty little things, though too often sing in amplitudes the size
of music boxes and you are left
with decoration for your shelf.
————————————————-
Of course some of the poems are just so nice and crafty I want to carry them in my pocket! And her death was definitely a loss for poetry - she was getting onto something with her biographies (William Morris and Darwin).
of music boxes and you are left
with decoration for your shelf.
————————————————-
Of course some of the poems are just so nice and crafty I want to carry them in my pocket! And her death was definitely a loss for poetry - she was getting onto something with her biographies (William Morris and Darwin).
November 29, 2018
A special poet. Niedecker is pursuing something both grand and unique in scope. She goes at her lines with precision and exactitude but it never feels boringly perfect.
July 27, 2008
been re-reading this again and remembering why i loved it so much to begin with.
March 21, 2016
This collection made Lorine one of my favorite poets. The comparison of women and nature has me feeling emotional.
October 29, 2016
There are no words to describe the mystical soul shaking that is involved in reading Lorene Niedecker's poetry. None.
September 22, 2017
Niedecker has been a revelation to me, informing me about a subset of poetry that I relate to very directly in my own writing (albeit nowhere near as well executed as she has done). I'm looking forward to where the various connections to her contemporaries and influences lead me. If you enjoy tight, haiku-esque building blocks that are very intentional with not only theme but sound, I think you'll also enjoy Niedecker as I have come to.
January 11, 2021
“The women hold jobs--/ clean house, cook, raise children, bowl/ and go to church./ What would they say if they knew/ I sit for two months on six lines/ of poetry?” (143).
“O Tannenbaum/ the children sing/ round and round/ one child sings out:/ atom bomb” (141).
“O Tannenbaum/ the children sing/ round and round/ one child sings out:/ atom bomb” (141).
July 8, 2025
I was tempted to say she’s the greatest American poet of the 21st century but I think it’s more accurate to say she’s my favorite. At once iconoclastic, formal, and yet so very intuitive. Often imitated never replicated
August 20, 2017
A modernist influence that surely is the predecessor to other greats like Sylvia Plath. The sublime mixed with sociopolitical commentary. Good stuff.
September 9, 2018
Not her best work but love the line "the Brontes had their moors"
January 20, 2022
Grandfather / advised me: / Learn a trade
I learned / to sit at desk / and condense
No layoff / from this / condensery
I learned / to sit at desk / and condense
No layoff / from this / condensery
September 26, 2023
"Know amazedly how / often one takes his madness / into his own hands / and keeps it."
March 9, 2024
LOVE this marsh bitch
January 10, 2025
From Lake Superior was really the only poem I was fond of. The rest just felt too quick and unserious.
March 23, 2025
really enjoyed her, read largely through this collection of work… really appreciate her honesty about spending six months on six lines
July 21, 2021
Like other Objectivists, Niedecker’s poetry is marked by extreme compression and stark images that read like glances—an acquired taste.
Favorite Poems:
“If I were a bird”
“Fog-thick morning—“
“Poet’s Work”
Favorite Poems:
“If I were a bird”
“Fog-thick morning—“
“Poet’s Work”
April 3, 2014
In the past, I've enjoyed Niedecker's poetry in bits and pieces, here and there as I came to it, so it took me quite some time to get around to this collection. As a whole, though, the collected works read quickly and serve as a majestic and provoking journey through her years of writing. I'm not sure how often I'll come back to many of these poems, but there are many moments here that I'll remember and revisit. And, though I've only been aware of Niedecker's poetry in the past, I truly enjoyed the other works in this collection. Her essays are historical and transporting, utterly worth the read, maybe particularly for readers interested in character sketches or writing about their own families or surroundings. The gem of the collection, however, is the radio play that Niedecker based off of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. I'm not sure how I'd feel about it if I hadn't read the novel--my guess is that I wouldn't have been anywhere near so affected by it, though I may be wrong--but as it stands, even though I haven't read Faulkner's novel in at least five years, I found this one of the most powerful pieces of writing I've read in ages. Only about twenty very small (and doublespaced pages) in the collection, the radio play is packed with power--every word counts. Absolutely amazing. If you're a fan of Faulkner, honestly, whether you like poetry or not--this collection is worth your time and energy just for her prose and radio plays.
Simply? There's something for most readers here. Recommended.
Simply? There's something for most readers here. Recommended.
February 21, 2013
I haven't actually read ALL of this book (at least not yet). I skipped some of the earlier longer poems, which strike me as simply run-of-the-mill '30s modernism, and I'm not sure I'll read the prose and radio plays. But the heart--at least for me--of Niedecker's work lies in the short poems, often less than 10 lines, which insightfully, pithily evoke a moment of life or thought. Her observations of nature and the ability to bring them into life with words are both amazing; her heart is full and warm (though not without barbs and cynicism). These poems are the work of an extremely significant poet, who was essentially unknown for most of her life, and is still far too little known. Others of her generation cranked out book after book, won awards, read and taught at universities: Niedecker, on the other hand, wrote the poems that will outlive her more famous contemporaries.
January 4, 2014
I feel lucky that Niedecker came back to our attention in my lifetime, and the collected here played a significant role in that. Influenced by the nature she was surrounded by, her poems are concise and have quietness about them. The spacing probably won't hold, but here's one of my favorites of hers:
Paul
when the leaves
fall
from their stems
that lie thick
on the walk
in the light
of the full note
the moon
playing
to leaves
when they leave
the little
thin things
Paul
I feel like a lot of her work was about the little thin things.
Paul
when the leaves
fall
from their stems
that lie thick
on the walk
in the light
of the full note
the moon
playing
to leaves
when they leave
the little
thin things
Paul
I feel like a lot of her work was about the little thin things.
October 29, 2016
One can easily see why a contemporary poet like Rae Armantrout found her work so interesting and influential, as this book is loaded with Tanka-like brevity and a high degree of hermetic abstraction. There's no small amount of loneliness in between the lines (esp in the poems to Zukofsky's son Paul, who seems to be, given N's history with Zukofsky Sr and their brief relationship, something of a surrogate child), but also a wicked intelligence and penetrating eye towards nature resides here as well. Highly recommended.
April 6, 2011
We read her "New Goose," "For Paul," and "Handmade/Handcrafted Poems" collections and a few other individual works. Niedecker uses a sparse style to write very located, localized poems that draw on objectivist thought. "New Goose" is designed to capture a new sense of the folk, and her latter collections work more explicitly with the sensory, aesthetic, value-laden nature of objects, including natural environments. Enjoyed her work perhaps more than any other poet from this current course.
August 11, 2007
i love the phrase in one of niedecker's poems:
i am going of the page i am going off the page i am going off the
she was often associated with the objectvist nexus, but held onto her sense of surrealism.
a worthwhile poem to check out is her "paean to place." wonderfully lyric, experimental, and personal, without being sappy.
i am going of the page i am going off the page i am going off the
she was often associated with the objectvist nexus, but held onto her sense of surrealism.
a worthwhile poem to check out is her "paean to place." wonderfully lyric, experimental, and personal, without being sappy.
Read
August 18, 2008Niedecker is the great poet swept under the rug. her poems are spare, and the book's presentation is likewise. her menage a trois avec les Zukofkys (menage a quatre, including son Paul) is a bit icky. but she sees it, I do not think LZ let much of its essence appear. I recall Robert Grenier, minimalist in his aspect, honouring Niedecker, back in the day.
July 20, 2007
Niedecker might be my favorite poet if I liked poetry. Concise and unsentimental short poems, as well as some interesting experiments, make this a huge collection unlike anything else I've read, and her commitment to rhyme and down-to-earth descriptions is great for me.
February 20, 2009
I wrote about LN, Gertrude Stein, and Harryette Mullen for an independent study thesis in college. And EP bought me this book for my birthday that year so I could quit renewing all her books at the library!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews