| This research was conducted to look at the basic tenets of the poems of Lorine Niedecker, one of the best women poets of the twentieth century. The only woman of the Objectivist School, Niedecker theorized that true poetry comes from the speech of the common people; she maintained the voice of the folk poet in most of her pieces. This dissertation examines elements of folk speech which appear in her poems and correspondence; some poems were developed from her personal letters. The discussion includes sources of folk speech, levels of usage and word choice with examples, elements of folk speech, choice of topics, figures of speech, usage, style, creative spelling, and "found" poems.; Niedecker is best known as a poet-of-place; her close relationship to the land and water are reflected in her research interests in local and regional American history, geography, and geology which she used in her poems. She preferred to write pastoral poems with universal appeal, some poems using simple images in Classicist tradition in the style of ancient Greece, Rome, China, and even modified Japanese haiku. As a twentieth-century poet, she was a member of the Objectivist School; her basic literary technique, compression of meaning. Chapter IV focuses on "Wintergreen Ridge," the poem which Niedecker considered her best work. Included in this dissertation is a botanical catalogue of the wildflowers and vegetation mentioned in the poem to give the reader/listener a more complete idea of Niedecker's detailed research of her subject.; The last chapter of this dissertation with creative emphasis is a group of poems in homage to Lorine Niedecker, written in response to the author's long exposure and study of the writings of this Wisconsin poet. |
