Other People Do, in Fact, Exist: Richard Howard’s Epistolary Strategies

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Pages: 75-82
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/MPFP5124

Abstract:

Esteemed American poet and translator Richard Howard (1929–2022) won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1970 for his groundbreaking book 𝑈𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑆𝑢𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠, a collection of dramatic mono¬logues with the epistolary mode at its center. Originally and most deeply indebted to the dramatic monologues of Robert Browning, Howard’s work is also heavily influenced by novels in the great European tradition, by his deep immersion in European history, and by European literary culture in general. Howard’s witty, learned, ingenious persona poems advance the art of the epistolary in significant ways. For one, they demonstrate that a writer can establish his own idiosyncratic voice by assuming the voices of others. Moreover, Howard’s concentration on personas constitutes a counterbalance to the predominance of the Confessional mode in American poetry, highlighting the significance of his achievement. 𝑈𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑆𝑢𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠, published in 1969, arrived precisely at the time when the Confessional rose to prominence. As the tide of Confessional poets swept across the American literary landscape–carrying along with it its often-frivolous devotion to the contem¬porary, especially American popular culture–Howard’s poems relentlessly explore the lives of important figures of the nineteenth century and are unapologetically enamored of European high culture. Richard Howard’s poetry constitutes a rebuttal of Confessionalism, to wit, that “other people do in fact exist.”

Keywords:

Richard Howard; persona poem; epistolary poetry; Confessional poetry; Wallace Stevens

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