User:Riverdogs54/A. R. Ammons

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Archibald Randolph Ammons (February 18, 1926 – February 25, 2001) was an American poet and professor of English at Cornell University. Ammons published nearly thirty collections of poems in his lifetime. Revered for his impact on American romantic poetry, Ammons received several major awards for his work, including two National Book Awards for Poetry, one in 1973 for Collected Poems and another 1993 for Garbage.

Poetic Themes
Literary critics have associated Ammons with earlier poets of the American romantic tradition, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman. In line with these romantic roots, Ammons's poetry explores the individual soul through its connection to quotidian life and the natural world. Nevertheless, Ammons exhibits several qualities that distinguish him from his peers and predecessors. With a deep knowledge of natural phenomena, Ammons is noted for wielding a wide lexicon of scientific terms. He is also regarded for his witty––and sometimes coarse–humor, which balances out the gravity of his transcendentalist themes.

Ammons at Cornell University
When Ammons arrived at Cornell University in 1964 to teach creative writing, he had not yet finished his masters degree at the University of California, Berkeley. While somewhat self-conscious about his lack of academic pedigree compared to his colleagues, Ammons established himself quickly by completing and publishing six well-received volumes and earning tenure in 1969. In this same period, Ammons met literary critic Harold Bloom, who visited Cornell in 1968 as a fellow of the Society for the Humanities. Bloom is often credited with elevating Ammons's reputation in his early career, and the two maintained a lifelong relationship, frequently corresponding on both personal and literary subjects. Ammons also developed a close relationship with poet Robert Morgan, who joined the Cornell English Department 1971 and remained there alongside Ammons for nearly three decades. Both from North Carolina, Ammons and Morgan bonded over their similar upbringings; and though they embraced distinct poetic styles, the two poets praised each other's work throughout their careers. In step with his thematic focus on nature, Ammons drew inspiration for his work from the surrounding landscape of Ithaca, New York. His poems "Cascadilla Falls" and "Triphammer Bridge" pay tribute to outdoor landmarks in the area.

Poetic Style
Ammons commonly writes in two- or three-line stanzas, in which lines are unrhymed and strongly enjambed. Some of Ammons's poems are as short as one to two lines—a form known as monostich. Others, like Ammons's book-length poems Sphere, Tape for the Turn of the Year, and Garbage, are hundreds of lines long.

Ammons is noted for his idiosyncratic, minimalist approach to punctuation. The colon is Ammons "signature" punctuation mark, which he employs in many contexts to divide clauses while delaying a definitive end. Leery of terminal punctuation, Ammons avoids ending poems with periods. Instead, some poems end in ellipses, or in no punctuation at all.

Leery of terminal punctuation, Ammons avoids ending poems with periods. Instead, some poems end in ellipses, or in no punctuation at all.