Hayden Carruth :: essays research papers

Hayden Carruth     Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey is Hayden Carruths most late collection ofworks. Published in 1996, it reflects a dark, boozed washed view of the worldthrow the eyes of a 76- year-old man. His works reflect his personal experiencesand his opinion on world events. Despite technical merit Carruth works havebecome depressing.     Hayden Carruth is a child of the depression born in Vermont in 1921where he lived for many an(prenominal) tears. He now lives in upstate New York, where he taughtin the Graduate Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University, until hisrecent retierment. He has published twenty-nine books, mostly of poetry but alsoa novel, four books of criticism, and anthologies as considerably. Four of his mostrecent books are Selected Essays & Reviews, cool Longer Poems, CollectedShorter Poems, 1946-1991, and Suicides and Jazzers. He edited poetry for, Poetry,Harpers, and for 20 years The Hudson Review. He has re ceived fellowships fromthe Bollingen Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowmentfor the Arts, most recently in 1995, a Lannan Lit epochry Fellowship. He has wonmany awords including the Lenore Marsh completely introduce, the Paterson Poetry Prize, theVermont Governors Medal, the Carl Sandburg Award, the Whiting Award, the RuthLily Prize, the National Book Award and The National Book Critics Circle Awardfor Collected Shorter Poems, 1946-1991.     In "Another" Carruth comments on the goal of poetry. He begins bydismissing truth and beauty          "Truth and beauty          were never the           aims of proper poetry          and the era          which proclaimed them          was a brutal&nb sp         era."               -Another     The era mite have been brutal but "truth and beauty" where and still area large break in of "proper poetry". The collected works of William Shakespeare andRobert Frost both have great deal of truth and beauty in their works as well asthe tragic ordeals in life while Carruth only sees the brutality of life.Carruth goes on to name the goal of poetry as          "...let          justice be immemorial          when we sing,..."               -Another     Even though hes primary goal is justice this collection of poems seemsto be one long complaint about injustice. It is easy to agree with Carruth inthe & quot choice of wine" when he says "this wine is really awful, " unlike the poet,it is his unremitting winning that is awful. Like self commentary Carruthwrites           "Language is defeated          in the heavy, heavy day.           thumb lines on the page          like grass mown in the meadow."               -The Heaviness     This utter heaviness can be seen in the horrific poem "The Camp, " all21 verses of it lament mans hardness of heart. In the second verse, a lighterthrough reads,          "As the kittens were born