Ammons, A.R. (1926-2001)

A selective list of online literary criticism on the twentieth-century American poet A.R. Ammons, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars and articles published in peer-reviewed sources

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introduction & biography

"A.R. Ammons." An introduction to A.R. Ammons, plus excerpts of reputable critical discussions of "Corsons Inlet," "Coon Song," and "Gravelly Run." Modern American Poetry, eds. Steven P. Schneider and Cary Nelson.

"A.R. Ammons." An extended introduction to Ammons, includes a list of his works and a secondary reading list, from the Poetry Foundation.

"A.R. Ammons." An introduction to Ammons from the Academy of American Poets.

"Ammonsfest." Brief news story about an event at Cornell Univ. honoring Ammons, in connection with the gift of his papers to the university, in the Cornell Chronicle 1998.

"In Memoriam A.R. Ammons." A memorial tribute to A.R. Ammons by poet Robert Pinsky, transcript from PBS Newshour, 27 Feb. 2001.

Lehman, David. "Archie: A profile of A. R. Ammons." American Poet, from the Academy of American Poets.

literary criticism

Conte, Joseph. "The Smooth and the Striated: Compositional Texture in the Modern Long Poem." Conte notes that 'The "smooth texts" among twentieth-century long poems might include. . . . A.R. Ammons's Garbage (1993)." Modern Language Studies 27 (Spring 1997).

DiCiccio, Lorraine C. "Garbage: A.R. Ammons's tape for the turn of the century." Papers on Language and Literature Spring 1996 [sub ser, questia].

Goldfarb, David. "The Psychology of Criticism and the Poetry of A.R. Ammons." About a visit by Dr. Goldfarb to the Finger Lakes and Ammons' Lake Effect Country. Mosaic 1993.

McGuirk, Kevin. "A.R. Ammons and 'the only terrible health' of Poetics." McGuirk asks "what are we to make of the contemporary lyric's continuing advertisement of presence when postmodernism elsewhere celebrates surface, difference, and alterity?" Postmodern Culture 9, 1 (September 1998).

Hirsch, Edward. A brief review of Bosh and Flapdoodle, Ammons's last published book, in the New York Times 8 May 2005. Another review in the New Hampshire Review.

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