Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Collected Poems Of," Charles Olson reflects on the nature of literature, especially the works of Herman Melville and other canonical authors, and explores the thematic significance and stylistic diversity inherent in different forms of expression. The poem is a meditation on the "hardness" of literary works, particularly focusing on the strength that comes from a kind of honest grappling with life's harsh realities, which Olson contrasts with more "feminine" qualities he ascribes to works that resist violence through subtlety or psychological depth. The poem also speaks to Olson's idea of the "hollowed out thing," or the foundational core of a work that bears witness to a visceral, often raw truth—something he finds particularly vivid in Melville’s "Redburn" and "Moby-Dick."

Olson opens by positioning "Redburn" and "The Town-Ho" (a chapter in "Moby-Dick") as examples of works with lines that hit hard, noting how Melville’s rough-and-tumble nautical settings and characters evoke a powerful confrontation with existence. He contrasts the gritty strength of "Redburn" with what he sees as the relative softness of other works, like "Clarel," which he suggests lack the same foundational intensity. For Olson, "Redburn" is "composed" in a way that is firmly grounded in the real and raw experiences of life, creating a rhythm and structure that both stem from and contribute to a particular existential weight. This “hardness” seems to symbolize a level of authenticity and intensity in literary composition, a way of writing that neither skirts around nor softens harsh truths.

This emphasis on Melville’s “hardness” versus other literary “softness” also brings Olson to his contemplation of “femininity” and masculinity in literature, not in a gendered sense but rather as qualities of expression and method. He sees Shakespeare and Dostoevsky as embodying a “feminine” approach, which uses psychological and nuanced forms of exploration to address violence indirectly. They counter the blunt force of the world by adding complexity and subtlety. Melville, on the other hand, stands apart as possessing a “hardness” different from either Dostoevsky or Shakespeare. He is not sentimental or overtly psychological, but rather direct, intense, and confrontational, exploring human nature and morality in a way Olson equates with the "natural" and foundational—a matter of engaging life directly rather than through abstracted analysis.

In exploring the contrasts between these authors, Olson implicitly praises the rawness of "Redburn" and other works he associates with what he terms “hardness.” He views this quality as integral to the work’s connection with reality and as an antidote to the overly refined, abstracted approach that fails to fully confront life's concrete and often brutal aspects. This "hardness" manifests in Melville's work as a sense of honesty that Olson views as almost childlike, or primal—a directness that captures human nature at its most fundamental level. Olson’s reference to “hard as youth” is key here; he’s suggesting that this elemental approach is somehow close to the raw energies of early life, untouched by the kind of civilizing or moralizing structures imposed by adulthood or societal expectations.

Olson also reflects on the relevance of this “hard” quality in the mythological, positioning Melville within a lineage of writers who tackle fundamental questions about human nature, existence, and morality. He references “Omeros,” an alternative name for Homer, and places Melville among a tradition that includes not only Homer but also Euripides and, perhaps, Rimbaud—writers whose work taps into a timeless essence of life and human experience. This comparison emphasizes Olson’s view of Melville as a “genetic” writer, whose work goes beyond literary sophistication to embody a natural, unfiltered view of life.

Throughout the poem, Olson uses technical language—especially in referencing poetic and dramatic forms—to emphasize that this “hard” approach to writing is not merely a style but an underlying methodology that seeks to access what he describes as the "hollowed out thing." This “thing” represents the foundational truths of existence, stripped of artifice and presented as raw, unembellished essence. Olson seems to argue that only through this approach can a writer connect with the primal reality of human experience and thus create something lasting and meaningful.

Olson’s closing lines express a sense of fragmentation and existential dissonance, capturing the “human integral asunder” and evoking a world in which identity, nature, and understanding have been split or “shied” through an eternal “gate.” In this way, Olson calls attention to the fractured nature of contemporary existence, contrasting it with the cohesion he finds in Melville’s elemental “hardness.” This fragmentation further emphasizes Olson’s sense of urgency regarding authenticity in literature, urging a return to the kind of fundamental, unsparing engagement with life he associates with Melville’s work.

"Collected Poems Of" ultimately serves as Olson’s call to literary authenticity, an assertion that true art must engage the core of human experience, even at the cost of comfort or ease. Through his reverence for Melville and criticism of works that, in his view, lack such "hardness," Olson makes a compelling argument for literature as a means of confronting and understanding the raw, often unsettling realities of existence.

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