“[T]he poem / as a shatterd pitcher of rock crystal”: “An Essay at War” as Groundwork for Robert Duncan’s Later Poetry

Abstract

Robert Duncan’s decision to entitle his two final volumes Ground Work is significant insofar as it is a title that immediately emphasizes the poet’s insistence upon derivations and source material. That is, the title alludes to the question of its own sources, as if to ask, what is the groundwork for this work; what has led to its inception? We could answer these implied questions simply by listing any of the numerous allusions and quotations in Ground Work, citing Dante, Plato, and Whitman, among many others. However, it is important also to note the sources for this late work in Duncan’s own early work. In an interview with Howard Mesch, Duncan singles out his early poem “An Essay at War” as the poem that “proposed pretty much the process of my later poetry.”¹ In the pages that follow, I would like to explore this statement by considering how this important poem is transitional for Duncan—how it could be said to lay a groundwork for his late work.