Poetry
The Maximus Poems
Charles Olson · 1960
Synopsis
A long poem in three volumes, addressed from Gloucester, a fishing port in Massachusetts, by a figure who takes his name from a Greek philosopher of the second century, Maximus of Tyre. He writes letters to his town. He weaves together the geology of the coast, the first settlers and the Indians of the seventeenth century, Greek and Norse myths, the wild plateau of Dogtown and the demolition of old houses by urban renewal.
Context
The poem was begun in 1950. Three volumes appeared, in 1960, 1968 and 1975; the last was prepared after the author's death by Charles Boer and George F. Butterick, following his instructions. The edition that brings them together, published in 1983 and prepared by Butterick, corrects the text and adds twenty-nine poems. The work comes after Ezra Pound's Cantos and William Carlos Williams's Paterson, although Olson denied any direct filiation with the former.
Who it is for
A very long and demanding poem, which requires attention to a single place. It is better to begin with the first letters and not to look in it for a story. Translated in full by Auxeméry, with glossaries.
Prizes and reception
Olson's major work. He was a central figure among the poets known as the Black Mountain poets, and the book is one of the great achievements of American poetry of the century.
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