Sarcastic Irony Research Articles

An Exchange on Thomas B. Byers's "The Closing of the American Line: Expansive Poetry and Ideology"

I wish to correct a few errors of perception, and fact, Closing of the American Line: Expansive Poetry and Ideology, by Thomas B. Byers [Contemporary Literature 33.2 (Summer 1992): 396-415]. Early his interesting essay, I was pleased to see Professor Byers criticize detractors of Expansive poetry like Diane Wakoski and Wayne Dodd for their failure to give attention to the movement's poems themselves. But as his argument develops, I increasingly have the impression that he has chosen poems for discussion to support a preconceived point of view. Examples include his rough judgment of Dana Gioia's Cruising with the Beach Boys and his interpretation of verses by Timothy Steele, which he turns to in placing Steele politically. I believe his reading of Steele's lines is wrong, and tenuous at best. Gioia's poem is held up to support this assertion: They [Expansive poets] also repeat much of what they objected to the confessional workshop lyric: the narrowness of theme, range, and context; the exclusive focus on the author's personal experience; at worst the reduction to [quoting Dick Allen] 'anecdotes which the author shows off how sensitive he or she is' [406]. Professor Byers softens his criticism with a footnote of praise for Gioia's ability to write deeply moving personal but still insists that is little to choose, terms of focus, between these poems and the free-verse lyrics that the Expansivists so harshly criticize. The subtle, sarcastic irony Gioia's poem, my opinion, sets it apart, and there are other important poems by Expansive poets that refute this claim. Is Professor Byers aware of them? No, apparently.