TEACHING POETRY & AMERICAN ART

  • Introduction
    • Why Poetry and American Art?
    • Strategies
    • Disclaimer
    • About Me
  • Romanticism
    • Intro to American Romanticism (1820-1900)
    • John James Audubon
    • Thomas Cole
    • Asher Durand
    • Daniel Chester French
    • Winslow Homer
    • Albert Pinkham Ryder
    • Augustus Saint-Gaudens
    • "Illuminated Gems of Sacred Poetry"
    • "Indian Summer: Autumn Poems and Sketches"
  • Realism / Social Realism
    • Realism >
      • Intro to Realism (1900-1920)
      • George Bellows
      • Edwin Dawes
      • Thomas Eakins
      • Edward Hopper
      • Thomas Hovenden
      • John Sloan
    • Social Realism >
      • Intro to Social Realism (1920-1940)
      • Walker Evans
      • Dorothea Lange
      • Ben Shahn
  • Regionalism
    • Intro to Regionalism (1920-1940)
    • Thomas Hart Benton
    • Maynard Dixon
    • Grant Wood
  • Modernism
    • Intro to Modernism (1910-1940)
    • Stuart Davis
    • Charles Demuth
    • Marsden Hartley
    • Georgia O'Keeffe
  • Harlem Renaissance
    • Intro to Harlem Renaissance (1920-1940)
    • Aaron Douglas
    • Meta Warrick Fuller
    • Jacob Lawrence
    • Faith Ringgold
    • Carl Van Vechten
    • Hale Woodruff
  • Abstract Expressionism
    • Intro to Abstract Expressionism / New York School (1940-1960)
    • Morris Graves
    • Red Grooms
    • Philip Guston
    • Grace Hartigan
    • Kenneth Patchen
    • Dorothea Tanning
    • Walasse Ting
    • Cy Twombly
  • Postmodern/Contemporary
    • Intro to Postmodern / Contemporary Art (1950-present)
    • Visual Poetry
    • Louise Bourgeois
    • Joseph Goldyne
    • Elizabeth Murray
    • Jeff Schlanger
    • Kiki Smith
    • Jaune Q. Smith
  • More Resources
  • Introduction
    • Why Poetry and American Art?
    • Strategies
    • Disclaimer
    • About Me
  • Romanticism
    • Intro to American Romanticism (1820-1900)
    • John James Audubon
    • Thomas Cole
    • Asher Durand
    • Daniel Chester French
    • Winslow Homer
    • Albert Pinkham Ryder
    • Augustus Saint-Gaudens
    • "Illuminated Gems of Sacred Poetry"
    • "Indian Summer: Autumn Poems and Sketches"
  • Realism / Social Realism
    • Realism >
      • Intro to Realism (1900-1920)
      • George Bellows
      • Edwin Dawes
      • Thomas Eakins
      • Edward Hopper
      • Thomas Hovenden
      • John Sloan
    • Social Realism >
      • Intro to Social Realism (1920-1940)
      • Walker Evans
      • Dorothea Lange
      • Ben Shahn
  • Regionalism
    • Intro to Regionalism (1920-1940)
    • Thomas Hart Benton
    • Maynard Dixon
    • Grant Wood
  • Modernism
    • Intro to Modernism (1910-1940)
    • Stuart Davis
    • Charles Demuth
    • Marsden Hartley
    • Georgia O'Keeffe
  • Harlem Renaissance
    • Intro to Harlem Renaissance (1920-1940)
    • Aaron Douglas
    • Meta Warrick Fuller
    • Jacob Lawrence
    • Faith Ringgold
    • Carl Van Vechten
    • Hale Woodruff
  • Abstract Expressionism
    • Intro to Abstract Expressionism / New York School (1940-1960)
    • Morris Graves
    • Red Grooms
    • Philip Guston
    • Grace Hartigan
    • Kenneth Patchen
    • Dorothea Tanning
    • Walasse Ting
    • Cy Twombly
  • Postmodern/Contemporary
    • Intro to Postmodern / Contemporary Art (1950-present)
    • Visual Poetry
    • Louise Bourgeois
    • Joseph Goldyne
    • Elizabeth Murray
    • Jeff Schlanger
    • Kiki Smith
    • Jaune Q. Smith
  • More Resources

Ronald Johnson

INTRODUCTION

----> Poetryfoundaion.org entry on Ronald Johnson <----
​
----> Wikipedia entry on Ronald Johnson
 <----

Picture

Picture

Discussion points / questions / activities

----> Note written by Ronald Johnson in Mary Ellen Solt's Concrete Poetry: A World View:  "It is a maze mostly because one tends to read left to right at first & it makes no sense. Then one sees the vertical words: MAZE, MANE, WANE & thinks, trapped as I planned, to read it that way. But the way out of the maze is a visual one & one sees at last that it is simply three words MAZE (since the M's & W are made exactly alike, as are the Z & N's, so that the W is simply an upside down M, etc.) So it is actually the word maze making itself into one. And as an added delight, there are the handsome words MAZE, MANE, WANE.
(p. 311)
---> If you rotate the poem 90 degrees counterclockwise once, you arrive at the first change. Then, if you rotate it again, you arrive at the second change. It's in that way that you 'escape' from the maze.
​Solt, Mary Ellen, ed. Concrete Poetry: A World View. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana Univ. Press, 1970. Print.
EXPLORE MORE AMERICAN VISUAL POETRY

Bob Brown (1886 - 1959)
Kenneth Patchen (1911 - 1972)
May Swenson (1913 - 1989)
Saul Steinberg (1914 - 1999)
Robert Lax (1915 - 2000)
Mary Ellen Solt (1920 - 2007)
​Emmett Williams (1925 - 2007)
Maxine Kumin (1925 - 2014)
William Burford (1927 - 2004)
John Hollander (1929 - 2013)​
Jonathan Williams (1929 - 2008)

X.J. Kennedy (1929 - )
Robert Hollander (1933 - )
Arnold Adoff (1935 -  )
Charles Suhor (1935 - )
Courtland Smith (1939 - )
Carlota Cardenas de Dwyer (1940 - )
d.a. levy (1942 - 1968)
Aram Saroyan (1943 - )
Michael McFee (1954 - )
Tyehimba Jess (1965 - )​
Dan Waber (1966 - )
Douglas Kearney (1974 - )
Rob Giampietro (1979 - )
Joni James (1979 - )
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