Berk Çelik

2019281075

AKE 3022

Language Poetry and Stephen Rodefer

Being an avant-garde movement, Language Poetry emerged in late 1960s and early

1970s. It is a challenge to traditional poetry and forms. That’s why, it aimed to place emphasis

on the language of the poem to convey the idea rather than using meter, rhymes, or any other

classic features of poetry. By using the language primarily than these techniques to create the

meaning of poetry, the advocators of this movement tried to draw the reader’s attention and

then it developed from a variety of poets in San Francisco and New York. These poets

published their work of arts under the name of this movement in different journals such as

This, Hills, Tottels, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, and Tuumba Press. One of these poets is

Stephen Rodefer and he is the author of many books of poetry, prose, and plays. He is also the

main topic of this essay.

Stephen Rodefer was born on November 20 in Bellaire, Ohio, 1940, and died on

August 22, 2015, in Paris He was American poet and painter who lived in Paris and London.

He studied at Amherst College for his Bachelor degree of Art History and Literature, at State

University of New York, Buffalo for his master’s degree of Language and Literature, and at

San Francisco State University for his Masters in fine arts, Creative Writing and English.

Stephen Rodefer continued his academic career as an instructor and taught at many

universities such as Cambridge University, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, San Francisco State,

and the American University of Paris. He was the first American poet to be offered a

Fellowship at Cambridge University.

 Having a great academic career, he was also a productive writer and a member of the

L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry. His poetry, according to Joshua Kotin and Michael

Kindellan’s article, is digest of the new American poetry along with the other precursors in

terms of being an experimental and innovative way of understanding of poetry. Even though

Rodefer envies and admires some traditional poets such as Olson, Villon, Ginsberg, and

Catullus, his opinion about poetry contradicts with these poets no matter if he sees them as a

colleague or not.

After studying in Buffalo and then in New Mexico, he started to live in San Diego.

There, he worked with other language poets, and he started to write. He wrote many poetry

and other kinds of books during his life such as One or Two Love Poems from the White

World, The Bell Clerk's Tears Keep Flowing. As his colleagues at Language Poet movement,

he also advocated the effect of language in a poet to carry the meaning. Objecting traditional

thinking of poetry and being an experimental writer, he removed any kind of poetical features

and forms in his poems, and he wrote his own poems without them. There is also an award

winner book from him. Four Lectures is the winner of The American Poetry Center’s Annual

Book Award.

When it comes to awards of Stephen Rodefer won, it is important to mention about his

poetry book, Four Lectures. Because it is the winner of the American Poetry Center’s Annual

Book Award in 1982 in the category of the best book of poetry published in the U.S. Even

though it is the only book that won an award, his literary success isn’t limited with only this

award and it wouldn’t be right summoning him only with this book and only with an award

because it is only the beginning for him of his life. Other than his award winner book, he has

lots of fellowships and one with Cambridge University as mentioned above. Other some of his

fellowships are with Virginia Center, Yaddo Foundation, MacDowell Colony and more.
 In conclusion, it wouldn’t be fair to say that he is not a successful poet for his period

because, as we see in this essay, he didn’t limit himself only with poetry even though we only

examined his poetical side but of course I mentioned other types he is interested other than

poetry, that’s why it makes him a multi-directional author. He has critic, translation and

anthology books including the ones mentioned in this text. Also, he has a founding

membership of Poets Theatre in San Francisco. Having conflicting ideas against all the

traditional poetical views, he tried his best to make poetry more free than typical poetic

features and tried to make it understood easily by way of the language.

 Work Cited

“A Brief Guide to Language Poetry.” Poets.Org, 23 Jan. 2023, poets.org/text/brief-guide-

language-poetry.

https://poets.org/text/brief-guide-language-poetry

Voutiritsas, Thea. “What Is Language Poetry?” Read Poetry, 23 Mar. 2021,

www.readpoetry.com/what-is-language-poetry

“Language Poetry.” Poetry Foundation

www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/language-poetry Accessed 12 June 2023.

“About.” Stephen Rodefer,

www.stephenrodefer.com/about Accessed 12 June 2023.

“Stephen Rodefer.” Modern Arts,

www.modernsculpture.com/stephen-rodefer Accessed 12 June 2023.

KOTIN, JOSHUA, and MICHAEL KINDELLAN. “Stephen Rodefer’s Position.” Chicago

Review, vol. 54, no. 3, 2009, pp. 6–7. JSTOR,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25742478 Accessed 11 June 2023.