"all happening visually as well as intellectually": Robert Creeley and the Act of Writing
Keywords:
Robert Creeley, context, poetry, writing, Charles OlsonAbstract
This article analyzes Robert Creeley's essay \"Contexts of Poetry,\" delivered at the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference, to explore the turning point in his writing career. The paper argues that Creeley's dissatisfaction with his earlier writing habits led him to experiment with new modes of composition, seeking to enlarge the field for poetry to admit a multiplicity of worlds. The study examines Creeley's emphasis on the physical and historical context of writing, drawing on insights from Charles Olson and Alfred North Whitehead to illustrate how context functions as a force in poetic composition. The author contends that Creeley's use of the preposition \"of\" in his title signifies a sense of belonging, suggesting that poetry is intrinsically connected to its contextual surroundings. This article demonstrates how Creeley's work transcends the singularity of the self to engage with broader collective and historical dimensions, challenging previous critical interpretations that focus solely on his introspective themes.
(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)
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