Forfeiting the Self: Research and Contemporary Poetry

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  Remember you are no one / in this story.
  Nicole Cooley
  "Directions for Ordering the Voice"

There is a movement in contemporary poetry towards collections unified by a researchable thread, spanning from biographies-in-verse to the exploration of a single, historical event. Themed books certainly have a precedent, as W.S. Merwin points out in his introduction to David McCombs' Ultima Thule, in "the Greek pastoral poets, to Petrach, to the Spoon River Anthology." But, a collection drawn primarily from academic research comes as a modern hybrid. We can only speculate the catalyst of this occurrence. It may concern the increased presence of poets in academia and, further, academia's insistence on cross-discipline. Or, perhaps, more simply, it is another strategy intended to avoid a state of "morbid self-consciousness," the infamous criticism John Stuart Mill wrote regarding Robert Browning's first published poem, "Pauline," which consequently assisted in the poet's adoption of the dramatic monologue. Whatever the cause may be, more important are the …