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Earlier this year I received the following letter from Tracy Moore of Forest Hill, Maryland.
Dear Ken,
I have read Rod McKuen's poems since I was given a copy of "Listen To The Warm" in 1969. Now, all these years later, I find myself back in college finishing what I started many years ago. We are starting a unit on poetry, and I was surprised to find that Rod is not in my text book among other American poets. One of the options for a research paper is to prove why a certain writer is not a part of our "literary canon". Do you have any ideas on this topic?
When I looked up the term "literary canon" is simply states writers who have been influential, have artistic merit and are in a certain classification of literature. Surely Rod belongs with this group, but I need ideas as to why he is not to prove my thesis.
Any input you can give me would be much appreciated.
Thank-you,
Tracy Moore
As a South African I felt I was not qualified to pass comment on the American literary process but I did try to point Tracy in the right direction by supplying her with a couple of thoughts which she could research further.
Last week she wrote to say her paper was complete, had been graded and that she was thrilled with the outcome.
So was I. She kindly agreed to share it with us and here it is for your reading pleasure.
Behind the Beat
In the late 1940’s and going into the 1950’s, there was a generation of poets who questioned mainstream culture. They embraced alternative values and were known as the “Beat Generation” (Beat). The Beat poets gave us names like Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlingetti, and Jack Kerouac. Influenced by these Beat poets was a young unknown author named Rod McKuen. Through the years, Rod McKuen has become one of America’s best selling poets. His work spans from simple poems to musical scores and because of his artistic merit, he should be included in the literary canon.
Rod McKuen began his poetry career in 1954. He was a high school drop out and in this joins other well known, less educated authors such as Walt Whitman and William Faulkner (Kerry). During the Korean War, he was a script writer on psychological warfare (Short). After his military discharge, he sang at folk clubs and connected himself with the Beat poets. He briefly worked on Hollywood films, which may have been the beginning of his relationship to commercialism and why his work is not considered worthy of the canon.
Literary canon goes back to the time when it was determined which biblical books were considered to be the ones with the most validity. The word canon is derived from the Greek word for ruler, meaning a type of measurement (Theology). Writers were held to this exclusive measurement or standard. Through the years the canon has included the great works in history and writers with artistic achievement. Today, we think of it as required reading in schools across the country. Who decides what has value? How is it decided which literary work goes in the canon? The American Heritage Dictionary gives the following definitions to literary canon: “authoritative list, as of the works of an author” and “a basis for judgement: standard: criterion” (Landow). It is also defined as “the books of the Bible officially recognized by the church” (Landow). When an author belongs to the canon, it is supposedly a guarantee of quality. However, there is a responsibility to be open and allow readers to form their own opinions.
It is true that many people would not even attempt to read the works of Shakespeare if it were not required of them. Writers such as Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Dickinson would become obsolete. It is imperative that these great classic authors maintain their place in the canon and that they are read by generations to come. The canon can change however, and it needs to include writers such as Rod McKuen, who have made significant contributions in both poetry and literature.
The canon represents our culture, and where we have been over the centuries. It can help us to understand how life was for women in the 19th century. It can give us a look into our history which is not documented in any text. Great literature withstands the test of time and we can picture how the stories apply in today’s world. However, we are told which of these works are worthy of our time. Because others through the years have had a good experience reading them, so should we (Bridges et al). These works are intended to provoke thought and leave a lasting impression. What leaves a strong impression on one person, may not on another. Recommended reading closes the door to discovering writers on your own. The canon restricts the reader and limits influential writers from taking their place as contributors to our culture.
In today’s world of computers, videos and modern technology, many people don’t have an independent reading life. Students read what is required. People read what is meaningful to them, whether it is the next installment of a romance novel or the latest mystery book on the market. Pleasure reading is crucial to instill in students. More enjoyment will be received from the classics if we also allow for some choices. Finding an obscure writer who is not in the canon opens up new possibilities to learn something that is not necessarily required of us. The cultural power of the canon also leaves out writers who have endured through the years. Not being included in the canon keeps noteworthy writers from being read and interpreted. Works by women were often ignored because a woman’s work was “presumed to be slight”(Pollitt). Black writers were “presumed to be too unsophisticated” (Pollitt). If everyone read from only one list, a wide range of styles and personal reflections would be overlooked.
Rod McKuen has made contributions that should earn him recognition. In addition to being the “best selling poet of all time” (Mano 624), he is a singer and a composer. He has eleven Grammy nominations and one Grammy award. He has two Academy Award nominations for musical scores of the films The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1969, and A Boy Named Charlie Brown, 1970. In 1969 he was awarded a Golden Globe Award, and has two Emmy Awards for musical scores. His awards go on to include a Pulitzer Prize nomination and an outstanding poet award from the Carl Sandburg Society, among other recognitions from various universities (Rod McKuen). An entire album of Rod McKuen’s poetry and songs called A Man Alone, was recorded by Frank Sinatra. This long list of credentials more than qualifies him for a place in our literary canon.
One could argue that Rod McKuen’s early career was similar to the great American poet, Carl Sandburg, whose society presented McKuen with the Outstanding Poet Award in 1978. Like Sandburg, Rod McKuen grew up in poverty. Both worked at odd jobs. Both travelled the country as vagabonds. Carl Sandburg and Rod McKuen each have passionate political views and both served in the military (Short, Niven). Both writers make their poetry accessible to readers with words that are easily understood. Carl Sandburg was an educated writer and that is where some of the comparisons end.
Rod McKuen writes poetry about intensely personal experiences and the world around him (Gardner 214). In an interview with Don Swaim, he mentions how much of his writing comes from life experiences or things he saw far from home. He goes on to say that the “Bronte Sisters saw little in life, yet turned out interesting literature” (qtd Swaim). Regardless of life experiences, a writer can touch lives and they have no idea how that touch can strike a reader. “If people don’t understand me, then I am not a communicator. Then I have not succeeded in what I do” (qtd Gardner 225) An inspirational quality pervades virtually every one of his books (Gardner 214).
Through the years, critics have dismissed his poetry because it “isn’t just inept, it’s immoral” (Mano 624). He writes about love, loneliness and animals, to name a few topics, in ways that people can relate to. Rod McKuen’s poems can be sensitive and sentimental, hardly what we expect a canonized writer to be. What is sentimental to some may be considered eloquent to others. His poem, “El Monte” is a look at soldiers going off to war in Vietnam (McKuen, Twelve). This poem does not have some of the warm sentiments that are typical of a Rod McKuen poem, and shows the range in which he writes.
El Monte
I probably will never see El Monte on a Sunday
or El Segundo washed by winter rain.
I never knew these towns existed – if they do,
outside of the obituary page that states
how many boys came home today
in boxes made of steel.
I am well aware that some who lived in Chicago
have died too, but it’s the new El Nowhere towns
I think about this morning
and young men that the whole town knew.
Today some children running down the hill
were shouting out the war is over.
They must have had some other private war of words
in mind and not the one I’m paying for
the that’s killing off the boys I see on airplane rides
staring off in space in search of El Dorado.
Sometimes I ask them where they come from
El Paso is the answer or El Monte.
And so they take the tinsel from our lives
on airplane rides across the sea
and like the silver in our dimes
it won’t come back until we question why..
El Monte’s just ten minutes from L. A.
To some I’m told it seems like El Dorado
when it rains.
Just the same
I doubt I’ll ever go there on a Sunday.
His poetry invokes thought, not just about emotions, but of current issues in our culture. In Kenneth C Bennett’s literary criticism class at Lake Forest College, a remark was made about a less than creative poem, comparing it to “Rod McKuen’s poem about his pet cat” (Bennett 573). The poem being referred to, A Cat Named Sloopy, is a classic among Rod McKuen’s work. It is a prologue to his book Listen to the Warm. The poem tells the story of a relationship with a cat as it unfolds. The cat is the only friend the voice can count on. When the cat becomes missing, the poem describes the search, the anguish, and how the world has changed since Sloopy is no longer a part of his life.
A Cat Named Sloopy
1.
For a while
the only earth that Sloopy knew
was in her sandbox.
Two rooms on Fifty-fifth Street
were her domain.
Every night she’d sit in the window
among the avocado plants
waiting for me to come home
( my arms full of canned liver and love. )
We’d talk into the night then
contented
but missing something.
She the earth she never knew
me the hills I ran
while growing bent.
Sloopy should have been a cowboy’s cat
with prairies to run
not linoleum
and real-live catnip mice
No one to depend on but herself.
I never told her
but in my mind
I was a midnight cowboy even then.
Riding my imaginary horse
down Forty-second Street,
going off with strangers
to live an hour-long cowboy’s life,
but always coming home to Sloopy,
who loved me best.
2.
A dozen summers
we lived against the world.
An island on an island.
She’d comfort me with purring
I’d fatten her with smiles.
We grew rich on trust
needing not the beach or butterflies.
I had a friend named Ben
who painted buildings like Roualt men.
He went away.
My laughter tired Lillian
after a time
she found a man who only smiled.
Only Sloopy stayed and stayed.
Winter.
Nineteen fifty-nine.
Old men walk their dogs.
Some are walked so often
that their feet leave
little pink tracks
in the soft gray snow.
Women fur on fur
elegant and easy
only slightly pure
hailing cabs to take them
round the block and back.
Who is not a love seeker
when December comes ?
Even children pray to Santa Claus.
I had my own love safe at home
and yet I stayed out all one night
the next day too.
3.
They must have thought me crazy
screaming
Sloopy
Sloopy
as the snow came falling
down around me.
I was a madman
to have stayed away
one minute more
than the appointed hour.
I’d like to think a golden cowboy
snatched her from the window sill,
and safely saddlebagged
she rode to Arizona.
She’s stalking lizards
in the cactus now perhaps
bitter but free.
I’m bitter too
and not a free man anymore.
Once was a time,
in New York’s jungle in a tree,
before I went into the world
in search of other kinds of love
nobody owned me but a cat named Sloopy.
Looking back
perhaps she’s been
the only human thing
that ever gave back love to me.
Much of the criticism directed towards Rod McKuen seems to be related to his financial success. Poets are envisioned as poor writers trying to eke out a living. Some find the marketing of Rod McKuen to be the reason he is not as respected, others find the simplicity of his work to be the culprit. In Rod McKuen’s own words, “if my poems lead people to like poetry, that is all that matters” (qtd Swaim). Being popular and being recognized for your work must mean different things to different people. David Swanger, who teaches a poetry course at University of California, comments that there are poems whose author’s names are withheld due to how they would be accepted. “Poems which would otherwise be dismissed lightly, (eg Rod McKuen) are found to contain genuine power” (Swanger, Teaching Poetry 43). In addition, he says of Rod McKuen, “I am persuaded that what we have here is the Norman Rockwell of poetry” (Swanger, Colridge’s). Rod McKuen’s poetry deals with facing emotions that we all feel. At a turbulent juncture in American social history, his unabashedly sentimental poems and songs won him a vast public following, a financial fortune, and the disdain of most literary critics (Short). Another reason he may be overlooked in the canon is that many of his poems are also song lyrics. This confuses people, as they are not sure of what he is presenting. One of his most famous poems “Jean” (McKuen, Songs 86) was part of the musical score that won him an Oscar nomination.
Sales figures of his books and recordings prove his popularity. In his 1975 Times Literary Supplement article, David Haresen found Rod McKuen’s popularity to be “frightening” (Rod McKuen). After seeing Rod McKuen perform in 2007, Claire Dederer reviewed that “I begin to see that his heart-on-his-sleeve authenticity is undergirded by a lot of art.” She went on to comment that “we all are in this room, and Rod McKuen is making us believe in love and art” (Dederer). More than 30 years separates these two comments, yet positive or negative, Rod McKuen has endured.
Hearing a poem, like watching a play, helps the reader/listener feel the writer’s emotions. In the article "Freshman Comp and Communication”, John Schmittroth submitted that “today’s music expresses the students’ real interests. Such artists as John Lennon, Donovan, Leonard Cohen, Rod McKuen and others have produced something close to first rate poetry” (Student Culture 260). During the 60’s and 70’s, Rod McKuen’s usual arena was a college campus. If his work was not considered legitimate, why was he invited to present his poetry at institutions of higher learning? It is also worth noting that Rod McKuen’s poem “Thoughts On Capital Punishment” was included in the the ninth edition of the text book Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. (McKuen, Thoughts).
Before his books were successful “the reviews were always raves” states Rod McKuen (qtd Sullivan), “of course everybody would like to read lovely adjectives next to their name, but you can’t take that seriously. You can only take the work seriously” In discussing poetry, he states that “poetry should be immediate” (qtd Swaim). He keeps his poems simple and easy to understand. “Poets”, says McKuen, “are keepers of language” (qtd Swaim).
Rod McKuen has proven himself through his works over the years. The contributions he has made to literature need to be remembered by future generations. Grasping a Rod McKuen poem can touch an emotion deep within ones self. Whether one finds his work to be shallow and trite or meaningful and enduring, America’s best selling poet needs to be recognized as part of the canon. Rod McKuen’s poems, essays and songs are therapeutic for him as well as his fans (Rod McKuen).
Tracy Moore, English 102, 29th April 2008
Works Cited
“Beat Generation.” Funk & Wagnall’s New World Encyclopedia. Harford Community College. 2 Apr. 2008
Bennett, Kenneth C. “Practical Criticism Revisited.” Nation Council of Teachers of English 38.6 (Feb. 1977). 2 Apr. 2008
Bridges, Sidney, et al. “The Canon Examined.” Independent School 67.2 (Winter 2008). Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Harford Community Coll., Bel Air, MD. 28 Mar. 2008
Dederer, Clair. “Rod McKuen Appears in The Desert.” Poetry Foundation. 31 Mar. 2008
Gardner, Ralph D. Writers Talk to Ralph D Gardner. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1989.
Kerry MD, Shaun. “First Rule of Education Should Be ‘Do No Harm.’” Education Reform. World prosperity, LTD. 31 Mar. 2008
Landow, George P. “The Literary Canon.” The Victorian Web.org. Brown University. 28 Mar. 2008
Mano, D Keith. “The Gimlet Eye.” National Review 11 June 1976. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Harford Community Coll., Bel Air, MD. 28 Mar. 2008
McKuen, Rod. Listen To The Warm. New York: Random House, Inc, 1967.
- - -. The Songs of Rod McKuen. Hollywood, CA: Cheval-Stanyan Co, 1969.
- - -. “Thoughts on Capital Punishment.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X J Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Ninth ed. N.p.: Longman, 2005.
- - -. Twelve Years of Christmas. New York: Random House, Inc, 1969.
Niven, Penelope. “American Poets.” Dictionary of Literary Biography (1987). Dictionary of Literary Biography. Gale. Harford Community Coll., Bel Air, MD. 3 Apr. 2008
Pollitt, Katha. “Canon to the Right of Me.” The Nation (1991). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Harford Community Coll., Bel Air, MD. 28 Mar. 2008
“Rod McKuen.” Contemporary Authors Online. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Harford Community Coll., Bel Air, MD. 3 Apr. 2008
Short, Carol Dale. “The Sixties in America.” EBSCOhost. Harford Community College. 28 Mar. 2008
“Student Culture and the Freshman English Class.” College Composition and Communication 20 (1969). JSTOR. Workshop Reports. 31 Mar. 2008
Sullivan, James. “McKuen in autumn: Once-ubiquitous, oft-derided poet plans a 70th birthday gala.” San Francisco Chronicle 21 Dec. 2002. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Harford Community Coll., Bel Air, MD. 31 Mar. 2008
Swaim, Don. “Audio Interview with Rod McKuen.” Wired for Books. Ohio University. 28 Mar. 2008
Swanger, David. “Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria’ and Aesthetic Education.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 14.1 (Jan. 1980). JSTOR. University of Illinois. 3 Apr. 2008
- - -. “Teaching Poetry: Notes Toward an Integrated Rationale.” College English 36.1 (Sept. 1974). JSTOR. National Council of Teachers of English. 2 Apr. 2008
Theology. Dept. home page. 3 Apr. 2008. Rockhurst University. 3 Apr. 2008
I was not in the least bit surprised to learn Tracy received an A for her efforts. Nor was I surprised to note the date on her excellent paper.
Thank you, Tracy.
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