Queer lyrics

"Queer Lyrics fills a gap in Queer Studies: The lyric, as poetic genre, has never been directly addressed by queer theory. Vincent uses formal concerns, difficulty and closure, to discuss innovations specific to queer American poets. He traces a genealogy based on these techniques from Walt Whitman, through Hart Crane and Marianne Moore, to John Ashbery and Jack Spicer. Vincent shows how each of these poets uses closure to confound the normal operations of identity and influence - even to muddy the line between life and death. These poets' experiments navigate poetic as well as lived difficulties and open venues where queer lives might be survived and celebrated. Queer Lyrics considers the place of form in queer theory, while offering original readings of the work, life, and poetics of central figures in the pantheon of American poetry."--BOOK JACKET.