In the 1960s, the New York School of poetry started task to intellectually stimulate minds. Located in the heart of New York City, this poetry school has very distinguished alumni poets such as Kenneth Koch, and Frank O’Hara. The school started as an informal group of American poets who each were quite different poets, yet they drew inspirations from the Avant Garde art movement and for the most part, all meet at Harvard University. The NYSP had many influences on modern day poetry and poets. Modernism is probably what this poetry school is mostly known for. Modernism poetry are known for their vivid and exotic landscapes that illustrates nobility and materiality yet the message is usually making fun of all the “bougieness.” Since abstract art was a major element in New York culture, the poets of NYSP combined this flare of art with a zest for words. O’Hara had many connections with the Museum of Modern Art and used his social status to create connections for poets and painters. One of the first-generation students, John Ashberry, described the relationship between poets and painters as accidental:
“My arrival in New York coincided with the cresting of the “heroic” period of Abstract Expressionism, as it was later to be known, and somehow we all seemed to benefit from this strong moment even if we paid little attention to it and seemed to be going our separate ways. We were in awe of de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko and Motherwell and not too sure of exactly what they were doing.”- Ashberry
However, the poetry of the New York School was also still surreal and merged “urban sensibility into much of the work(Poets.org).” Using a variety of New York culture as inspiration, the poets were heavily influenced by jazz music, dance, and theatre which were all on the rise during the 1950s and 60s. The poets even were widely known and respected in the art and theatre community. Both O’Hara and James Schuyler worked at the Museum of Modern Art, and Ashbery and Schuyler were critics for Art News.
The older generation students of NYSP gathered inspiration from the tradition of classical European modernism. Stephen Koch described New York School Poets as “artist [who] do not write grandstand poetry.” This statement proves correct because these poets did not attempt the common “anguish poets” style whom did not relate to society nor the use of overly complicated playing with words. A second generation of New York School poets arose during the 1960s and included Ted Berrigan, Ron Padgett, Anne Waldman, and Joe Brainard. Similar to their predecessors, they were also influenced by art, and their poetry offered similar essence and collaboration. Their environment centered around downtown New York and was associated with the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, a poetry organization started in the mid 1960s. The poets of NYSP also embraced the new style of jazz that was born in the underground called bebop. Beboop was wild, flamboyant, and individualistic. This style was one that the poets of NYSP could easily relate to. Frank O Hara even wrote a poem to honor the great Billie Holiday.
The Day Lady Died
It is 12:20 in New York a Friday
three days after Bastille day, yes
it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine
because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton
at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner
and I don’t know the people who will feed me
I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun
and have a hamburger and a malted and buy
an ugly new world writing to see what the poets
in Ghana are doing these days
I go on to the bank
and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard)
doesn’t even look up my balance for once in her life
and in the golden griffin I get a little Verlaine
for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do
think of Hesiod, trans. Richmond Lattimore or
Brendan Behan’s new play or Le Balcon or Les Nègres
of Genet, but I don’t, I stick with Verlaine
after practically going to sleep with quandariness
and for Mike I just stroll into the park lane
Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and
then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue
and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and
casually ask for a carton of Gauloises and a carton
of Picayunes, and a new york post with her face on it
and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of
leaning on the john door in the 5 spot
while she whispered a song along the keyboard
to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing
NYSP also used cultural movements as a platform for their work. During the 1960s, the gay rights movement redefined same sex relations as more than a sexual deviation yet a way of life that could not be “cured.” The Stonewall riots were the mark of the gay liberation movement when there was a police raid on Stonewall Inn. Many of the poets identified as part of the LGBT community notably Ashbery, Frank O Hara, and James Schuyler. Each of these poets had their own way of expressing their sexuality in their poetry. Frank O Hara was very explicit about sexuality. For example, he wrote about having oral sex in a movie theatre.
“I bought a ticket so I could be alone. With the plumes.
With the ushers.
With my own prick.
and with my death written in smoke
outside this theatre where I receive my mail.
Guts? my gut is full of water, like the River Jordan.”
Schuyler was more discreet with sexuality references. In one of his poem, he vaguely addresses his lover. For those who do not identify as LGBT, they gay liberation movement still created an opportunity to reject mainstream for an exciting subculture. Many of the poets would meet at the Tibor De Nagy Gallery for an exchange of art and poetry with peers.
The NYSP poets used New York culture and cultural movements as a massive pot of inspirations. Their unique style and serious but playful nature to this day inspires modern poets.
Appendix
“A Brief Guide to the New York School.” Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 25 May 2004. Web. 30 Jan. 2017. <https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/brief-guide-new-york-school>.
Epstein, Andrew. “Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets.” Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets. N.p., 28 Jan. 2017. Web. 30 Jan. 2017. <https://newyorkschoolpoets.wordpress.com/>.
Koch, Stephen. “The New York School of Poets: The Serious at Play.” New York Times. New York Times on the Web, 11 Feb. 1968. Web. 30 Jan. 2017. <http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/06/04/specials/koch-ny.html>.
Yezzi, David, “Last One Off the Barricade Turn Out the Lights”, a review in The New York Times of The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets, by David Lehman, Thursday, January 3, 1999. <http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/03/books/last-one-off-the-barricade-turn-out-the-lights.html
McGrath, Charles. “Abstract Painter’s Afterlife, Reborn.” New York Times. N.p., 5 June 2014. Web. 30 Jan. 2017. <https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/arts/design/raymond-spillenger-of-the-new-york-school-gets-noticed.html>.