EPILOGUE Returning to Stein

Gertrude Stein’s “Patriarchal Poetry,” published in the 1927 collectionBee Time Vine, bears all the hallmarks of her most hermetic and difficult poetry. The near-constant repetition, always with “a little changing,” of specific words and phrases is not, however, as some readers may believe, a paean...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inA Vocabulary of Thinking p. 159
Main Author Deborah M. Mix
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published University of Iowa Press 01.12.2007
Subjects
Arts
Communications
Female homosexuality
Gays and lesbians
Gender studies
Homosexuality
Literary criticism
Literary genres
Literary studies
Literature
Narratives
Poetry
Praise poetry
Sexual orientation
Social sciences
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Summary:Gertrude Stein’s “Patriarchal Poetry,” published in the 1927 collectionBee Time Vine, bears all the hallmarks of her most hermetic and difficult poetry. The near-constant repetition, always with “a little changing,” of specific words and phrases is not, however, as some readers may believe, a paean to nothing. Virgil Thomson writes in his preface toBee Time Vinethat “I have not the slightest idea what it means” (vi). Even Marianne DeKoven admits defeat, writing inA Different Languagethat “most of ‘Patriarchal Poetry’ not only defies interpretation, it defies reading” (138), later suggesting that the poem is simply a
ISBN:9781587296130
1587296136