ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


670 /  C &R L  News

The importance of poetry in 

American libraries

B y M elissa Cain

H ead, H umanities Reference D epartm ent 
University o f North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A  n e w  PBS series profiles 13 k e y  A m e ric a n  poets.

I t  seems fitting th a t in th e m idst of a renew ed in­

terest in our nation’s social history heralded by the 
celebration of our C onstitution’s 200th anniver­
sary, w e also be given the opportunity to reflect 
upon o u r literary history. A new  13-part video se­
ries, “Voices an d  Visions,” scheduled to air on most 
PBS stations beginning in January, will m ake this 
possible. T h e series, produced by th e N ew  York 
C enter for Visual History an d  presented on PBS by 
th e  South C arolina ETV N etw ork, is funded in 
large p a r t by the A nnenberg/CPB Project and the 
N ational E ndow m ent for the H um anities. I t repre­
sents a collaboration between scholars, film m a­
kers, educators, and poets intended to provide a 
visually rich yet inform ative overview of th e  range 
a n d  com plexity of American poetry.

“Voices an d  Visions” profiles thirteen American 
poets th rough individual one-hour program s th a t 
focus on th e  creative process and the works of the 
poets (rather th a n  on their biographies). T h e group 
of poets selected for inclusion in th e  series are 
nam es readily associated w ith America’s m odern 
poetic voice: Elizabeth Bishop, H art C rane, Em ily 
D ickinson, T.S . E lio t, R obert F rost, Langston 
H ughes, R obert Low ell, M arianne Moore, Sylvia 
P lath , E zra P ound, W allace Stevens, W alt W h it­
m an, an d  W illiam  Carlos Williams. A com bina­
tion of docum entary, d ram atic and experim ental 
film  te c h n iq u e s  a re  u sed to h ig h lig h t vario u s 
sounds, im ages an d  concepts found in poetry as a 
broad a r t form  and, m ore specifically, in each se­

lected poet’s voice an d  vision.
Through the participation of contem porary po­

ets, w riters, an d  critics such as Allen G insberg, 
Stephen Spender, A drienne Rich, James M errill, 
M ary M cC arthy, and Joyce C arol O ates, critical 
com m entary is provided and additional views are 
offered by individuals w ho knew th e  w riters as 
friends or fam ily members. In the program  on E zra 
Pound, for example, interviews w ith Pound’s com­
panion O lga Rudge an d  his daughter, M ary De- 
Rachew iltz, explore the poet’s increasing disillu­
sionm ent w ith m odern life, his isolation and his 
g ra d u a l obsession w ith  econom ic an d  p o litic al 
themes.

In addition to th e 13 program s, p rin ted  texts ac­
com pany the series. These include an anthology of 
poetry, M odern Am erican Poets: Their Voices and 
V isions, e d ite d  b y  R o b e rt D iY an n i (R an d o m  
House, 1988), and a collection of critical essays, 
Voices and Visions: The Poet in A m erica, edited by 
H elen V endler (Vintage Books, 1987). T he ALA 
Com m unications D epartm ent will provide library 
inform ation kits about the series th a t contain pro­
gram m ing ideas, p rom otion suggestions, an d  a 
viewer’s guide w ith  chapters on each poet to extend 
th e  ideas presented in the video. These kits will be 
sent to academ ic and public libraries.

In a tim e of shrinking budgets, lim ited resources 
and changing technologies, the im portance of po­
e try  in A m erican lib ra rie s  m ay seem obscure. 
Should libraries consider poetry a priority? Do pa-



December 1987 /  671

Cr: Houghton Library

Robert Lowell

trons find pleasure in free verse? Are stanzas o
iambic pentameter relevant in a world dominate
by television? To answer these questions w e mus
review the underlying value of the humanities i
American culture and understand why participa
tion in and preservation of the humanities is vital t
our spiritual welfare and intellectual survival.

In  1980 a landm ark publication entitled Th
Humanities in American L ife  (University of Cal
fornia Press, 1980) was issued in an attem pt to a
firm the im portance of the humanities in America
education and public life. The Commission on th
Humanities (established in 1978) issued this repo
so th a t Americans would realize how the hum an
ties contribute to our knowledge about ourselves a
well as other individuals and societies around us
The report emphasized th a t through the hum an
ties we reflect on the fundam ental question of w ha
it means to be hum an. We awaken our senses an
expand our perspectives; w e are better able t
make sense of a paradoxical world w here hope an
growth are shadowed by death and despair, wher
prosperity is as evident as poverty. Consequently
through exposure to historical study, creative an
expository writing, or the reading of fiction and po
etry, w e probe the depths of the mysterious self an
gain insight as well as greater desire to realize ou
hum an potential and our civic responsibility.

Poetry is “a w ay of saying,” as Cleanth Brook
and Robert Penn W arren state in their standar
text, U nderstanding Poetry (H olt, R inehart &
W inston, 1976). As infants, we experience pleasur
from the rhythm and rhyme of poetry and, as Dy
lan Thomas commented, a lifelong love affair wit

Cr: Rosenbach Museum & Library 

Marianne Moore

f words may begin as a result of listening to the chim­
d ing of M other Goose rhymes. As we struggle to 
t learn a language, our imaginations respond to the 

n sound of nonsensical words strung together in teas­
­ ing verbal melodies. In this w ay poetry touches a 
o “natural” impulse in us very early in life.

Poetry is, of course, metaphysical and depends 
e upon using words in figurative and non-literal 
i­ ways. This characteristic can make poetry seem 
f­ strange, difficult and irrelevant to the pragm atist. 
n For example, in an information society w e are ac­
e customed to gathering facts and figures to enable us 
rt to meet our daily obligations and to plan for the fu­
i­ ture. We tend to think of discourse as a means by 
s which we define our precise needs in a practical 
. world. W e believe we can best control our lives if 

i­ w e have access and com mand of organized knowl­
t edge. However, even in such a specialized society, 
d w e recognize th a t some of our “facts” are not clear- 
o cut and th a t we must handle situations th a t are not 
d always black or white. It follows then, that we 
e must have the ability to discern feelings and atti­
, tudes; to make subjective as well as objective de­
d scriptions and analyses. In short, we must learn to 
­ think multi-dimensionally in a multi-dimensional 
d world. Poetry offers not only a w ay of saying b u t a 
r w ay of seeing. A poem, Wallace Stevens said, is an 

“answering look” given back by the poet to life.
s American libraries have a responsibility to pro­
d vide not only materials and programs for a literate 

 society but also for a critical society. Traditionally, 
e collections in both public and academic libraries 
­ have been w ell balanced between English and 

h American poets and major w riters, such as the 13



672 /  C &R L  News

poets featured in “Voices and Visions,” are well 
represented. As a result, American libraries have 
helped create a social and institutional support th a t 
enables poetry to flourish in our culture.

Typically, library collections covering American 
poetry contain a variety of m aterials including sep­
arate an d  collected works of a  poet’s history, prose 
and essays; biographical m aterials such as biogra­
phies, autobiographies, selected published letters, 
and memoirs; critical works, and source studies re­
lating to th e body of a poet’s work, to individual 
works, o r to the tradition of poetry in which the 
work is produced; collections of critical essays; gen­
eral anthologies of poetry; and various reference 
m aterials listing explication sources, standard edi­
tions, or even identification of words, lines and 
passages in single poems. Reference librarians are 
experienced in locating criticism, reviews, an d  ex­
plication of poems, since poetry is enigm atic and 
readers frequently need assistance w ith defining, 
recognizing an d  applying poetic devices and term i­
nology. Frequently, academic libraries ow n the 
popular and scholarly journals w here critical es­
says are published, b u t m ore often libraries do not 
have extensive collections of literary or little m aga­
zines. M any of these small press publications can be 
identified in the International Directory o f L ittle 
Magazines and Small Presses, edited by Len Fulton 
a n d  E llen F e rb e r (D ustbooks, 1987), a n d  fre ­

quently current small press publications focusing 
on contem porary American poetry can be supplied 
by Small Press D istribution, Inc. (1814 San Pablo 
Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702) or by Consortium 
Books/Bookslinger (213 E. 4th Street, St. Paul, MN 
55101). Basic subject or publisher-based approval 
plans will provide quality small press publications 
issued by presses such as C opper C anyon, T h u n ­
der’s M outh, or N orth Point. O ther useful inform a­
tion on the development of American poetry collec­
tions m ay be fo u n d  in  E nglish a n d  A m erican  
Literature: Sources and Strategies fo r  Collection 
D e v e lo p m e n t, e d ite d  b y  W illia m  M cP h ero n  
(ACRL Publications in Librarianship, no.45).

If libraries w ant to evaluate th e  status of their 
collections r e la tin g  to th e  13 poets stu d ie d  in 
“ V oices a n d  V is io n s ,” th e  b ib lio g r a p h y  in 
Vendler’s Voices and Visions: The Poet in Am erica 
provides an excellent list of basic and new  texts on 
each of the writers.

M any academic libraries preserve and develop 
collections of literary manuscripts, mem orabilia, 
and author correspondence. These collections may 
be identified through reference sources such as 
Am erican Library Resources, by Robert Downs 
(ALA, 1951 w ith supplements), the National Un­
ion Catalogue o f M anuscript Collections (Shoe 
String, 1962-), or John Robbins’ Am erican L iter­
ary Manuscripts: A  Checklist o f Holdings in Aca­
dem ic, Historical and Public Libraries, M useums, 
and A u th o r’s Homes in the United States (Univer­
sity of Georgia, 1977). For example, the literary 
m anuscripts of H art Crane are found largely in the 
collections of sixteen American libraries, tw o p ri­
vate owners, and one philanthropic foundation in 
the U nited States; the m ain body of Eliot m anu­
scripts and letters is in seven university libraries, 
most notably in the Houghton L ibrary a t H arvard 
University and a t King’s College, Cam bridge Uni­
versity. In this w ay, libraries provide a visual and 
historical record of a poet’s grow th, methods of 
composition, and biography.

The vastness and richness of American library col­
lections in the area of American poetry speaks di­
rectly to our profession’s com mitment to the intrinsic 
and cultural values of poetry. It is im perative that 
libraries not only collect and preserve poetry m ateri­
als but also provide access and interpretation of these 
materials for the public. Creative interpretive ex­
hibits, scheduling poetry readings, offering lectures 
on the development of a poet’s career, all heighten 
awareness and appreciation of poetry by the public. 
Many state and regional humanities councils will 
help fund programs such as these, and public and ac­
ademic libraries can work together on such projects 
w ith fruitful results.

T he series “Voices and Visions” brings national 
atten tio n  to th e  characteristics, spirit and tone 
found in American poetry and allows both aca­
demic an d  public libraries the opportunity to make 
creative and im m ediate use of their impressive re­
sources in the best of hum anistic traditions. ■  ■