Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Yvor Winters: founder of New Formalism

The American poet often took to task many poets of the literary canon

  • At the San Francisco Airport
  • To my daughter, 1954
  • This is the terminal: the light
  • Gives perfect vision, false and hard;
  • The metal glitters, deep and bright.
  • Great planes are waiting in the yard—
  • They are already in the night.
  • And you are here beside me, small,
  • Contained and fragile, and intent
  • On things that I but half recall—
  • Yet going whither you are bent.
  • I am the past, and that is all.
  • But you and I in part are one:
  • The frightened brain, the nervous will,
  • The knowledge of what must be done,
  • The passion to acquire the skill
  • To face that which you dare not shun.
  • The rain of matter upon sense
  • Destroys me momently. The score:
  • There comes what will come. The expense
  • Is what one thought, and something more—
  • One’s being and intelligence.
  • This is the terminal, the break.
  • Beyond this point, on lines of air,
  • You take the way that you must take;
  • And I remain in light and stare—
  • In light, and nothing else, awake.
  • The Fable
  • Beyond the steady rock the steady sea,
  • In movement more immovable than station,
  • Gathers and washes and is gone. It comes,
  • A slow obscure metonymy of motion,
  • Crumbling the inner barriers of the brain.
  • But the crossed rock braces the hills and makes
  • A steady quiet of the steady music,
  • Massive with peace.
  • And listen, now:
  • The foam receding down the sand silvers
  • Between the grains, thin, pure as virgin words,
  • Lending a sheen to Nothing, whispering.
  • Much in Little
  • Amid the iris and the rose,
  • The honeysuckle and the bay,
  • The wild earth for a moment goes
  • In dust or weed another way.
  • Small though its corner be, the weed
  • Will yet intrude its creeping beard;
  • The harsh blade and the hairy seed
  • Recall the brutal earth we feared.
  • And if no water touch the dust
  • In some far corner, and one dare
  • To breathe upon it, one may trust
  • The spectre on the summer air:
  • The risen dust alive with fire,
  • The fire made visible, a blur
  • Interrate, the pervasive ire
  • Of foxtail and of hoarhound burr.
Yvor Winters

Yvor Winters (1900-1968) was an American poet and critic who was perhaps better known for his criticism – which often took to task many of the accepted poets of the literary canon – than he was for his poetry. His own style began in the Modernist mode – heavily influenced by the Imagist style of presenting the image in a poem unadorned and directly to the reader, without either commentary or sentiment. In his later years, however, he developed a more staid and neo-classical style of poetry, which included a greater clarity of statement, and formal elements such as meter and rhyme. He is considered one of the founders of the New Formalism movement in poetry.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Didja know I did the first American feature on Jimi Hendrix?

Richard Meltzer goes through the Germs, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Elvis, Lavender Hill Mob
  • At the San Francisco Airport
  • To my daughter, 1954
  • This is the terminal: the light
  • Gives perfect vision, false and hard;
  • The metal glitters, deep and bright.
  • Great planes are waiting in the yard—
  • They are already in the night.
  • And you are here beside me, small,
  • Contained and fragile, and intent
  • On things that I but half recall—
  • Yet going whither you are bent.
  • I am the past, and that is all.
  • But you and I in part are one:
  • The frightened brain, the nervous will,
  • The knowledge of what must be done,
  • The passion to acquire the skill
  • To face that which you dare not shun.
  • The rain of matter upon sense
  • Destroys me momently. The score:
  • There comes what will come. The expense
  • Is what one thought, and something more—
  • One’s being and intelligence.
  • This is the terminal, the break.
  • Beyond this point, on lines of air,
  • You take the way that you must take;
  • And I remain in light and stare—
  • In light, and nothing else, awake.
  • The Fable
  • Beyond the steady rock the steady sea,
  • In movement more immovable than station,
  • Gathers and washes and is gone. It comes,
  • A slow obscure metonymy of motion,
  • Crumbling the inner barriers of the brain.
  • But the crossed rock braces the hills and makes
  • A steady quiet of the steady music,
  • Massive with peace.
  • And listen, now:
  • The foam receding down the sand silvers
  • Between the grains, thin, pure as virgin words,
  • Lending a sheen to Nothing, whispering.
  • Much in Little
  • Amid the iris and the rose,
  • The honeysuckle and the bay,
  • The wild earth for a moment goes
  • In dust or weed another way.
  • Small though its corner be, the weed
  • Will yet intrude its creeping beard;
  • The harsh blade and the hairy seed
  • Recall the brutal earth we feared.
  • And if no water touch the dust
  • In some far corner, and one dare
  • To breathe upon it, one may trust
  • The spectre on the summer air:
  • The risen dust alive with fire,
  • The fire made visible, a blur
  • Interrate, the pervasive ire
  • Of foxtail and of hoarhound burr.
Yvor Winters

Yvor Winters (1900-1968) was an American poet and critic who was perhaps better known for his criticism – which often took to task many of the accepted poets of the literary canon – than he was for his poetry. His own style began in the Modernist mode – heavily influenced by the Imagist style of presenting the image in a poem unadorned and directly to the reader, without either commentary or sentiment. In his later years, however, he developed a more staid and neo-classical style of poetry, which included a greater clarity of statement, and formal elements such as meter and rhyme. He is considered one of the founders of the New Formalism movement in poetry.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Nation’s sexy soldiers stage protest at Pendleton in wake of change in Marine uniform policy

Semper WHY?
Next Article

Navy solves San Diego homeless crisis by retiring four locally moored ships

Decommision Accomplished
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.