In his 1967 survey,
The New Poets, M. L. Rosenthal identified William Stafford as one of a small number of “independent” American poets who didn’t fit easily into any of the dominant trends or schools. Most of the American sections of Rosenthal’s book were devoted to “confessional” poets like Robert Lowell, John Berryman and Sylvia Plath. Another major movement into which he grouped his chosen poets was “projectivism”, as formulated principally by Charles Olson and espoused by the so-called Black Mountain School. With two such large and influential groupings dominating the scene in the 1960s, it’s not surprising that William Stafford should appear as something of a maverick, askew from what his contemporaries were doing. And one might add that the metropolitan…
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Citation: Spencer, Luke. "William Stafford". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 February 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4187, accessed 23 November 2024.]
