Stephen Dobyns: Context and Causality (January 2009)

Stephen Dobyns examines how we read poems that rely on outside context, such as Berryman’s “Dream Song 18, A Strut for Roethke” and W.B. Yeats’ “Leda and the Swan.” Our reading of Berryman’s poem, for example, is shaped by knowledge of Roethke’s death and of the elegiac tradition.  Arguing that such knowledge can help us understand the writer’s intention, Dobyns proposes ways in which the poet can establish context for the reader, regardless of the poem’s subject.