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description, humility, restricted diction, and—despite their frequent skepticism—fidelity to a material and social world. They follow
Williams’s "demand," as the critic Douglas Mao put it, "both that poetry be faithful to the thing represented and that it be a thing in itself." They are so bound up with ideas of durable thinghood that we can name the tendency simply by capitalizing: the New Thing. . . Reference, brevity, self-restraint, attention outside the self, material objects as models, Williams and his heirs as predecessors, classical lyric and epigram as precedents: all these, together, constitute the New Thing.
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The poets of the New Thing observe scenes and people (not only, but also, themselves) with a self-subordinating concision, so much so that the term "minimalism" comes up in discussions of their work ... The poets of the New Thing eschew sarcasm and tread lightly with ironies, and when they seem hard
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did, well-made, attentive, unornamented things. It is equally at home (as he was) in portraits and still lifes, in epigram and quoted speech; and it is at home (as he was not) in articulating sometimes harsh judgments, and in casting backward looks. The new poets pursue compression, compact
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Elliptical poets try to manifest a person—who speaks the poem and reflects the poet—while using all the verbal gizmos developed over the last few decades to undermine the coherence of speaking selves. They are post-avant-gardist, or post-"postmodern": they have read (most of them)
256:
has called her "one of the most influential poetry critics of generation". Burt grew up around
Washington, D.C. She has published various collections of poetry and a large amount of literary criticism and research. Her work has appeared in
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and have chosen to do otherwise. Elliptical poems shift drastically between low (or slangy) and high (or naively "poetic") diction. Some are lists of phrases beginning "I am an X, I am a Y." Ellipticism's favorite established poets are
497:"), a charming book or two for children, and a panoply of influential reviews. This book aims to illuminate a Jarrell more ambitious, more complex, and more important than that." In 2005, she also edited
329:... The poets tell almost-stories, or almost-obscured ones. They are sardonic, angered, defensively difficult, or desperate; they want to entertain as thoroughly as, but not to resemble, television.
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from 2000 to 2007. Since 2007, she has worked at
Harvard University, where she became a tenured professor in 2010. In 2023, she was named the Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English.
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In 2009, she wrote "The New Things", an essay in which she posits a new category of
American contemporary poets, which she calls "The New Thing". These poets derive their style from the likes of
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Burt is transgender, and in 2017, she transitioned to presenting female. She has since been active in LGBTQA+ rights and awareness campaigns.
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in 2002. In explaining her book's aim, Burt wrote, "Many readers know
Jarrell as the author of several anthology poems (for example, "
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Burt also adds that elliptical poets are "good at describing information overload". In addition to calling the subject of her review,
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undergraduate students, surpassing Burt's belief that she'd end up teaching the course as a seminar to about 20 students.
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to pin down, it is because they leave space for interpretations to fit ... The new poetry, the new thing, seeks, as
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called "Taylor Swift and Her World," an
English course surrounding the musical works of American singer-songwriter
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Burt, Stephanie (Dec 2017 – Jan 2018). "Run-of-the-mill sticks, run-of-the mill stakes". Symposium.
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In addition to writing about poets and poetry, Burt has published four books of her own poetry,
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Burt, Stephen. Randall
Jarrell and His Age. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
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and poet who is Donald P. and
Katherine B. Loker Professor of English at
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The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary
American Poems and How to Read Them
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On occasion, she has been known to write for a popular audience on
366:(1993) as "some groundbreaking and definitively Elliptical books."
1169:"Harvard poet Stephanie Burt's new volume explores gender, memory"
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https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/taylor-swift-harvard-class
590:. The course was met with widespread fame, enrolling almost 200
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Burt, Stephen. "The New Thing." Boston Review. May/June 2009.
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reevaluates
Jarrell's importance as a poet. The book won the
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She has a particular interest in the work of the poet/critic
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The Forms of Youth: Twentieth-Century Poetry and Adolescence
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Poets whom she cites as examples of "The New Thing" include
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Burt's Boston Review essay introducing "Elliptical poetry"
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Burt received significant attention for coining the term "
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Literary criticism: new categories of contemporary poetry
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https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/stephanie-burt
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In the Spring 2024 semester, Burt taught a course at
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Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English
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Don't Read Poetry: A Book About How To Read Poems (
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872:From There: Some Thoughts on Poetry & Place
337:, an important elliptical poet, she also lists
1244:Burt's Boston Review essay on "The New Thing"
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768:Burt, Stephen (November 23, 2015).
678:Advice from the lights : poems
495:The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
1044:"The Invention of the Trans Novel"
947:Oppenheimer, Mark (Sep 14, 2012).
432:In addition to her essays for the
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1329:American people of Jewish descent
1142:Burt, Stephanie (May 23, 2014).
741:Burt, Stephen (August 5, 2013).
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1289:American women literary critics
1294:The Believer (magazine) people
707:. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press.
687:After Callimachus : poems
680:. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press.
671:. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press.
662:. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press.
445:The New York Times Book Review
262:The New York Times Book Review
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806:Randall Jarrell on W.H. Auden
689:. Princeton University Press.
538:, including an article about
463:The Times Literary Supplement
46:Stephanie Burt, December 2018
1324:American transgender writers
1097:"Stephanie Burt's Review of
974:""Kingmaker" to Gatekeeper"
796:Randall Jarrell and His Age
487:Randall Jarrell and His Age
285:" in a 1998 book review of
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55:1971 (age 52–53)
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1072:"Stephen Burt's Review of
541:X-Men: Days of Future Past
342:The Sorrow of Architecture
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903:2019) Hatchet Book Group
889:Harvard University Press
874:. (2016) Ronsdale Press
842:Harvard University Press
685:Burt, Stephanie (2020).
1234:Burt's personal website
770:"Ice for the ice trade"
436:, Burt has written for
376:William Carlos Williams
1309:Yale University alumni
761:Ice for the ice trade
705:We Are Mermaids: Poems
649:Burt, Stephen (1999).
521:Advice From The Lights
469:London Review of Books
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729:Reprinted/collected
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346:Lucie Brock-Broido's
844:( co-authored with
499:Randall Jarrell on
491:Warren-Brooks Award
418:Elizabeth Treadwell
310:"language writers,"
160:Academic background
1256:, October 26, 2013
953:The New York Times
790:Literary criticism
617:; you can help by
584:Harvard University
574:Macalester College
562:Harvard University
485:, and Burt's book
349:The Master Letters
253:The New York Times
248:Harvard University
221:Harvard University
216:Macalaster College
103:Literary criticism
80:Harvard University
1199:Los Angeles Times
1175:. 3 November 2017
1101:by Susan Wheeler"
1076:by Susan Wheeler"
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1349:1971 births
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546:Kitty Pryde
519:(2013) and
501:W. H. Auden
475:Yale Review
353:Mark Ford's
68:Nationality
1278:Categories
1205:2019-10-08
1179:4 December
1054:2022-06-21
1029:2019-10-08
1009:2019-10-08
984:2017-12-04
923:References
615:incomplete
472:, and the
356:Landlocked
299:magazine:
193:Discipline
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753:(23): 28.
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76:Education
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532:and for
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136:Children
71:American
60:Language
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824:, 2007)
812:, 2005)
802:, 2002)
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323:Ashbery
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1081:May 1,
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737:2013
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