English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

1-8-1969

Abstract

Winfield Townley Scott, who published ten volumes of poetry between 1937 and 1967, has been highly praised by noted poets and critics, but he has yet to gain much popular recognition. For one thing, he wrote personal and lyric poetry in a time when the dominant movement in poetry was an escape from personality. For another, he devoted his lifetime to refining his poetry, until a casual reader may miss the subtle music and variations worked from a direct, simple language. A third reason for his lack of general recognition is simply the time lag necessary to become familiar with an individual poetic voice. Scott himself repeatedly said that a poet becomes distinguished when one is able to recognize the voice on every page. Winfield Scott's particular poetic voice can be discovered by seeing how his "stain of personality" touches the subjects he deals with, and by hearing the intonations of the voice itself. Therefore, after some introductory biographical material, the bulk of this study consists of edited conversations with W. T. Scott. We hear in his own words Scott's descriptions of W. C. Williams, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens and others--and learn about Scott from his reactions to them and their work. He goes on to reflect about himself and his craft; these conversations identify Scott's particular poetic sound, and locate him in the context of American poetic traditions. They also reveal Scott's particular mixture of strength, sentiment, and stoicism. A final chapter surveys the poetry itself, which exemplifies the things Scott revealed in conversation. The poetry particularizes Scott's obsession with time and the individual. On one hand he is concerned with revitalizing our sense of the past, a kind of social function, on the other, he attempts a fusion of time to create an encompassing individual moment. As to the use of the past he says, "We carry with us/That which we journey toward." But in terms of the individual he says, “All voyages follow the great cycle--inward.” Both impulses, however, stress personal existence, and in this respect he can be seen as a quiet and unnoticed forerunner of the Beat movement. Scott's own existence, as shown in the poetry, was dominated by a rigorous search for his own "inward way" to his art, he said of himself, "I have that life-long egocentricity that this is important to do." The search was above all for a poetry that could make "all come green again" in synthesis of cultural and individual experience.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Willis Dana Jacobs

Second Committee Member

George Warren Arms

Third Committee Member

Paul Benjamin Davis

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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