"All Your Ages at the Mercy of My Loves": Rewriting History in John Berryman's Homage to Mistress Bradstreet. (November 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: JORDAN, AMY
• Is Part Of: Journal of American studies. Volume 48:Number 4(2014:Nov.)
• Page Start: 999
• Page End: 1018
• Publication Date: 2014-11
• Subjects: United States -- History -- Periodicals; American literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; 973.05
• DOI: 10.1017/S0021875814000632
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-8758

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="normal"> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>Since its 1953 publication, John Berryman's <italic>Homage to Mistress Bradstreet</italic> has incited debate. The text's dialogue with the first published poet of colonial North America has been described as a factual study, a redaction of adultery and a veiled critique of modern society. It is seldom noted, however, that Berryman's strategy of "modulat[ing]" his voice into Anne Bradstreet's raises key questions regarding his reappropriation of her life and writing. Does <italic>Homage</italic>'s conscious ventriloquism problematize its status as a "historical" poem? And how might this revised understanding illuminate the work's relation to America's origins? This paper proposes a more multifaceted context for <italic>Homage</italic>'s composition than has hitherto been recognized. Through mapping the poem's rewriting of history, I demonstrate it to be the product of both national and literary anxieties: if voicing Bradstreet enables Berryman to interrogate the American Dream's legacy, her canonical status casts scrutiny upon the contemporary poet's role in an age of sociopolitical tensions. Foregrounding Berryman's public self-positioning in <italic>Homage</italic> invites a reassessment of his engagements with society that liberates his <italic>oeuvre</italic> from "confessional" designations. As a result, it opens the way for readings that might situate <italic>Homage</italic> and <italic>The Dream Songs</italic> within the wider tradition of American epic poetry.</p> </abstract>