Back to results

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Good Darkness: Affirmation in the Poems of Robert Bly, W. S. Merwin, and James Wright

Abstract

dc:description

Robert Bly, W. S. Merwin, and James Wright are Post-Modern American poets who share aesthetic, moral, and political concerns. All show a desire for an affirmative vision as well as a sense of how to arrive at it. Rather than extol the traditionally affirmative resonances of lofty mountains, starry skies, and rising suns, these poets write of ceaseless rivers, chaotic seas, and profound darkness and silence. Though such subjects are ordinarily connected with fear and death, these poets explore their potential for complex, often uneasy, and remarkably intense forms of affirmation.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph.D.
Level thesis:degree_level
Dissertation
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
English
Grantor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Year dc:date
2014

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Stiffler, Harold Randall

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Rights

Language dc:language
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Identifier
(UMI)AAI8127704
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/66346

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Base URL
www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Stiffler, Harold Randall. The Good Darkness: Affirmation in the Poems of Robert Bly, W. S. Merwin, and James Wright. Dissertation thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/66346