Alan Shapiro: Convention and Mysticism: Dickinson, Hardy, and Williams (January 2012)

“How do we recognize individual talent if not against the backdrop of convention?” asks poet, novelist, and memoirist Alan Shapiro. Using T. S. Eliot’s “Tradition and the Individual Talent” as a framework for his discussion, Shapiro considers the work of leading modernists who were deeply engaged with literary tradition and their individual talents. Among the works examined: Emily Dickinson, Poem 591; Thomas Hardy, “The Oxen”; and William Carlos Williams, “Portrait of a Lady.”