Mayakovsky biography ruth miller

Brutal Light by Lisyanet Rodriguez

I once had a conversation in Beijing with a group of Chinese poets who complained about the oppressive weight of writing in a 10,000-year-old literary tradition. They felt the Chinese tradition was hostile, given the great achievements of those 10,000 years, to innovation and new generations of poetry. They were envious of the friendlier, iconoclastic tradition of American poetry, always looking to future writers for innovation and a re-examination of the past. Specifically, we were talking about Emerson and Whitman, both of whom suggest that by rebelling against them future generations will extend their influence. That sense of a critical re-examination of the past, even under the steady influence of earlier writers, is readily apparent in Whitman. Deeply influenced by Emerson, Whitman radically modifies Emerson in many ways, for one by transforming a Christian dichotomy still found even in Emerson’s later essays. For Whitman, and never quite for Emerson, the self is no longer located exclusively in the soul/mind. In “I Sing the B

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