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The Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought

Contents

Dancing Under Water: Art and Survival in Susan Straight's Aquaboogie  

Male Bonding and American Literature 

T. S. Eliot's Poetry: Intimations of Wordsworth's Romantic Concerns  

Political Illusions, Crap-Detection, and Neo-Puritanism: Unapproved Notes from a Classroom Teacher 

From Invitation to Experience: A Narrative of (Dis) Engagement  

Can the Increasing Use of Public Opinion Polling Be Justified? 

POEMS 

For The Absent 

Entitled To One Moon Poem 

meadow stars  

The Dream Tyger  

For The First Time  

Thinking About The Universe Over Lunch And Dinner 

4:30 a.m. I could 

On The Oregon Trail In Western Nebraska, 14 July 1993  

Prediction 

Elegy  

Mid-July  

Patience 

A Wall Of Heartwood 

The Last Spring 

The Longing of Bones 

REVIEW 

Jared Carter; After the Rain 

Abstract

CHRISTIAN MICHENER explores Susan Straight's likening of the black experience in America to an underwater dancer so focused on survival as to remain as dry as the chief setting for most of the stories in the Aquaboogie collection, Rio Seco. A doctoral student in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Michener is here publishing his first scholarly work

Arguing that 'patriarchy' fails to reveal the tradition in American literature of male identity, power, and purpose, MICHAEL S. ALLEN examines the role of male bonding and traces it to the early threat of violence each young male faces, with the defensive attitudes, aggression, and groupings which result, not to homosexuality or other interpretations of this phenomenon. Assistant Professor of English at Ohio State University, Mansfield Campus, Allen has published a book (We Are Called Human: The Poetry of Richard Hugo), a chapbook of poems, and several articles on composition. He is currently researching the use of self-evaluation in writing assessment and network bulletin boards as a supplement to freshman composition.

While T. S. Eliot sought to overturn the Romantic tradition of Wordsworth, he could not, in ASAD AL-GHALITH's reading of Eliot's works, make a complete break with the past. Professor of English at Lakewood Community College in St. Paul, Minnesota, Al-Ghalith has published articles on 19th- and 20-century literature in numerous Middle Eastern scholarly journals and held academic positions in Saudi Arabia and the United States.

MELINDA BAKER is a ballet dancer and teacher. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, and has studied poetry with David Citino. This is her first published poem. ALICE G. BRAND, Rochester, New York, has published two books of poetry, As It Happens (Wampeter Press, 1983), and Studies on Zone (BkMk Press, 1989). Her poems have appeared in numerous magazines, including New Letters, Kansas Quarterly, and Nimrod. She also publishes essays and short fiction and has won several contests, including the 1988 Wildwood Poetry Competition.

ALAN BRITT has published poems recently in Widener Review, Poetry Motel, Whiskey Island Magazine, and other journals. He lives in Reisterstown, Maryland, with his wife, MaryBeth, and his daughter, Chelsea.

RUTH DAIGON, Mill Valley, California, is editor of Poets On:, a journal now in its seventeenth year of publication. Her latest book of poems is A Portable Past (Realities Library Poetry Series, 1987). Her poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Ms. Magazine, Kansas Quarterly, and numerous other journals. She won the 1993 "Eve of St. Agnes" National Poetry Award.

HOWARD DUPUIS has published poems recently in Poetry East, The Literary Review, and elsewhere. He lives and works in western Massachusetts.

FRITZ HAMILTON lives and works in Santa Monica, California.

WILLIAM KLOEFKORN's most recent poetry collection is Going Out, Coming Back (White Pine Press, 1993). He lives and works in Lincoln, Nebraska.

MICHAEL LIEBERMAN, Houston, Texas, has published a chapbook of poems, Praising with My Body (Thom Books, 1992). His poems have appeared in American Literary Review, Webster Review, High Plains Literary Review, and other journals. He is also a research physician interested in genes and cancer.

DONALD MORRILL has published poems in numerous journals, including The Kenyon Review, The Laurel Review, and High Plains Literary Review. He teaches at the University of Tampa and is poetry editor of Tampa Review.

KARL PATTEN, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, is co-editor of West Branch and teaches at Bucknell University. His collection of poems, The Impossible Reaches, was published in 1992.

ALLAN PETERSON received a 1992 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. He is co-editor of Half Tones to Jubilee, a journal of poetry and short fiction, and has recently published poetry in River City Review, Southern Poetry Review, Artful Dodge, and other journals. His chapbook, Stars on a Wire, was published by Parallel Editions, University of Alabama Institute for the Book Arts. Peterson lives in Gulf Breeze, Florida.

DAVID RAY is professor of English at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and has published fiction, essays, and poetry in many journals. His most recent books are Not Far from the River (Copper Canyon Press, 1990) and The Maharani's New Wall (Wesleyan University Press, 1989), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

JAMES SCOFIELD lives and writes in Olympia, Washington.

JAMES SOULAR, Superior, Montana, received an MF A in poetry from the University of Montana. He currently is a contract administrator in road/bridge construction for the U.S. Forest Service in Lolo National Forest, western Montana. In Vietnam, he served as a crew chief on CH- 47 helicopters with the 1st Cavalry Division, 228th Aviation Battalion, at An Khe, from June 1966 through August 1967.

Taking aim at the self-righteous and self-deluded who too-frequently pursue an agenda inimical to intellectual discourse, TERRY ALLEN WIGGS suggests that too many academics have forgotten the meaning of a university and embrace conformity in the name of diversity. A parttime instructor in English at Concordia Lutheran College and Austin Community College in Texas and a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas, Wiggs has already published numerous poems, fiction, and articles.

JANE LASARENKO's prescription for reviving popularity of the Humanities lies in shifting from the "literary game" of interpretation to emphasizing the author's many invitations for the reader to become engaged with the characters and the novel's themes. Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Program at West Texas State University, Lasarenko is currently working on the representation of the working woman in 19th-century popular fiction by women.

Though increasingly invoked by media and public officials and believed by most to reflect opinion with a proper degree of accuracy, THOMAS MICHAEL NORTON-SMITH argues that none of the justifications for the accuracy of public opinion polling has sufficient merit to sustain confidence in the result. A Professor at Kent State University, Stark Campus, Norton-Smith's scholarly works center primarily on the nature of mathematical ontology, epistemology, and representation, but he has interdisciplinary concerns such as that evidenced by this essay and a previous one in this journal on children's television programming.

R. P. BURNHAM edits The Long Story, a literary magazine. A book of his critical essays will soon be published by Juniper Press. He lives and writes in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

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