Theodore Vernon Enslin (March 25, 1925 – November 21, 2011) was an American
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
associated with
Cid Corman
Cid (Sidney) Corman (June 29, 1924 – March 12, 2004) was an American poet, translator and editor, most notably of '' Origin'', who was a key figure in the history of American poetry in the second half of the 20th century.
Life
Corman was bo ...
's ''Origin'' and press. He is widely regarded as one of the most musical of American
avant-garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
poets.
Enslin was born in
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
.
His father was a biblical scholar and his mother a
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
scholar. He studied musical composition at
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
. His teacher,
Nadia Boulanger
Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...
, was the first person to recognize his ability as a writer and encouraged him to pursue his interest in poetry. He has said "I like to be considered as a composer who happens to use words instead of notes." His first book, ''The Work Proposed'', was published by Origin in 1958.
Enslin moved to
Maine
Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
in 1960 and had lived in
Washington County ever since, working at odd jobs and making and selling handmade walking sticks. The Maine landscape forms an integral part of his poetry, as does its isolation, both geographic and in terms of distance from literary fashion and the academy, on the physical margin of the United States. ''Ranger'' 1978 is one of the key American long poems of the second half of the 20th century. A bibliographical checklist of Enslin's works was prepared by Robert J. Bertholf and published in 2017.
He died in
Milbridge, Maine on November 21, 2011.
Publications
*''The Work Proposed'' (1958)
*''The Place Where I Am Standing: Poems'' (1964)
*''This Do'' (1966)
*''To Come, To Have Become: Poems 1961-66'' (1966)
*''New Sharon's Prospect & Journals'' (1966/1967)
*''The Four Temperaments'' (1966)
*''Characters in Certain Places'' (1967)
*''The Diabelli Variations, and Other Poems'' (1967)
*''Agreement and Back: Sequences'' (1969)
*''Forms 1-5'' (1970–1974)
*''Views 1-7'' Berkeley, CA: Maya (1970
*''The Country of Our Consciousness'' (1971)
*''Etudes'' (1972)
*''Sitio'' (1973)
*''The Swamp Fox'' (1973)
*''Views'' (1973)
*''With Light Reflected: Poems 1970-1972'' (1973)
*''The Mornings'' (1974)
*''Fever Poems'' (1974)
*''Of East Dennis: The Highlands in Sorrow'' (exact year not known: 197-?)
*''Mahler'' (1975)
*''Ländler'' (1975)
*''The Median Flow: Poems 1943-1973'' (1975)
*''Synthesis 1-24'' (1975)
*''The July Book'' (1976)
*''The Further Regions'' (1976)
*''Carmina'' (1976)
*''Papers'' (1976)
*''Assensions'' (1977)
*''Ranger CXXII & CXXVIII'' (1977)
*''Circles'' (1977)
*''Concentrations'' (1977)
*''Ranger'' (2 vols. 1978 corrected edition 1980)
*''Tailings'' (1978)
*''Occurrence: An Issue of Theodore Enslin'' (1978)
*''16 Blossoms in February'' (1978)
*''May Fault'' (1979)
*''Opus 31, no. 3'' (1979)
*''2 Plus 12'' (1979)
*''The Fifth Direction'' (1980)
*''The Flare of Beginning Is in November'' (1980)
*''Star Anise'' (1980)
*''Two Geese: Two Poems'' (1980)
*''Madrigal'' (ca. 1980)
*''In Duo Concertante'' (1981)
*''Axes 52'' (1981)
*''Markings'' (1981)
*''Processionals'' (1981)
*''September’s Bonfire'' (1981)
*''“F. P.”'' (1982)
*''Meditations on Varied Grounds'' (1982)
*''A Man in Stir'' (1983)
*''Gray Days'' (1984)
*''Songs w/out Words'' (1984)
*''The Weather Within'' (1985)
*''For Mr. Walters: Master Mechanic'' (1985)
*''Music For Several Occasions'' (1985)
*''The Path Between'' (1986)
*''The Waking of the Eye'' (1986)
*''Case Book'' (1987)
*''Six Pavannes'' (1987)
*''Love and Science'' (1990)
*''Little Wandering Flake of Snow'' (1991)
*''Mad Songs'' (1995)
*''Conversations'' (1998)
*''Sequentiae'' (1999)
*''Then and Now: Selected Poems, 1943-1993'' (1999)
*''The Roads Around Jenkins'' (2000)
[Lawrence, KS: A First Intensity Chapbook, 2000.]
*''In Tandem'' (2003)
*''Nine'' (2004)
Archival Collection
The Theordore Enslin Papers are housed in the
Fales Library at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
.
References
External links
The Fales Library guide to the Theodore Enslin Papers
Interviewed by Robert Bertholf Robert J. Bertholf (November 5, 1940 – February 19, 2016) was an author and professor at Kent State University, and the University at Buffalo. He was the Charles D. Abbott Scholar-In-Residence and former curator of The Poetry Collection at Buffal ...
, this interview was conducted in Milbridge, ME, on three occasions: 21 June 1966, 15 August 2006, and 7 November 2006.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enslin, Theodore
1925 births
2011 deaths
American male poets
20th-century American poets
People from Chester, Pennsylvania
Writers from Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Poets from Maine
People from Milbridge, Maine
20th-century American male writers