Garnet Poems: An Anthology of Connecticut Poetry Since 1776

Foreword

Foreword In a United States of America jigsaw puzzle, the state of Connecticut is small and shaped rather like an ordinary rectangle. On the nation’s poetry map, however, Connecticut looms large. Connecticut’s importance is made clear by editor Dennis Barone’s splendid new anthology, Garnet Poems: An Anthology of Connecticut Poetry Since 1776. I once thought of editing a similar anthology myself, and even began gathering poems, but frankly I became worn down with slogging through the extensive works of the Connecticut Wits— historically important but tedious to the modern ear, or at least to me. What a debt we owe to Dr. Barone for his judicious selection from their enterprises. Other early Connecticut poets are here also, poets one may have heard about but whose work has remained unfamiliar to our times. There’s a sample, for instance, of the once famous Lydia Sigourney’s verse, popular two centuries ago. And few know that Harriet Beecher Stowe, in her time, was recognized for her poems as well as for Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Garnet Poems also reinforces the importance of Connecticut poets in the recent twentieth century. Included are poets undoubtedly among the great Moderns and Contemporaries: West Hartford and Hartford’s Wallace Stevens, of course, and also Hamden’s Donald Hall, New Haven and Woodbridge’s John Hollander, Uncasville and New London’s William Meredith, Stonington’s James Merrill, Fairfield’s Robert Penn Warren, Portland and Middletown’s Richard Wilbur and so on. We’re reminded, too, of how poetry that happens to be written by women has come into its own. Dennis Barone’s anthology certainly is strong in this regard. It will introduce those not familiar with Connecticut poetry to fifteen fascinating women’s voices, including those of nationally honored Marilyn Nelson, Margaret Gibson, Gray Jacobik, and Elizabeth Alexander. Particularly apt elements of this anthology are the eclectic nature of the selections—from traditional to experimental—and the number of poems that relate to or refer directly to this specific place, this throbbing rectangle state of Connecticut. For Connecticut is at once both a place and more than a physical place. It is the long tidal river, the coastal shore of Long Island Sound, the Barnum parade, the Weir Farm, and the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, and the Guilford Poets Guild, while being also a state of mind, a state—if I may be allowed a small play on words—of connections. The land of steady habits consistently gives x foreWorD us poets who think and feel judiciously. They may be Republicans or Democrats or Independents but it seems to me, reading this volume, that they perhaps most often stand off to the side and observe, or, like Wallace Stevens, they imagine differently, or they defend the so-called middle ground. Their stance and objectivity and freedom of imagination befits a state continually balancing farms, small towns, suburbs, and cities, a state you must cross and recross if you wish to go between the East’s great intellectual and artistic hubs of Boston and New York. Many Connecticut poems are metaphorical pauses at places within journeys. Garnet Poems, because of space limitations, could not include poems from all of the State’s outstanding poets. Ours is a most literary and artistic place and those poets represented here have numerous peers. But this volume should encourage its readers to seek out individual volumes by all. One of the great tasks of an anthology is to whet the appetite and send the reader to bookstores and libraries for full individual poetry volumes. An anthology is a bouquet; a complete book by a given poet is a life. That said, Garnet Poems: An Anthology of Connecticut Poetry Since 1776 seems to me indispensable to the understanding and appreciation of Connecticut’s and the nation’s great literary heritage. Along with Dennis Barone’s preface, the poets’ short biographies, and a fascinating final note by Dr. Barone, it is a full presentation to the general public of poets past and present. Their work will fit firmly (well, there may be a rough edge or two along the Sound) into the puzzle of ourselves. DiCk Allen Connecticut state poet laureate (2010–2015) ...