Rachel Blau Duplessis Theory Of Lorine Niedecker's Poems

Critical/Ecological Response
Rachel Blau DuPlessis’ theory about Lorine Niedecker’s poetry, “subordinating the literal to the figurative and looping between literal and figurative words…” creates the question, “could these tactics be what Niedecker meant by “reflections”?” (405). It is fundamental to understand what Niedecker means by her use of the term “reflections” and how it corresponds within her poetry in order to try and understand Niedecker’s construction of thoughts. Niedecker spent much of her life withdrawn. Due to this withdrawn state, her poetry is married to nature with its dense images of landscapes and animals, and just like any marriage, one can claim that the spouse is both a reflection and opposite of the other. Her marriage
Niedecker visualizes herself and others in a natural cycle that makes everything in her poetry a reflection of “something else.” In, “Lake Superior”, during her conversation with Al, Niedecker says, “In every part of every thing is stuff that once was rock that turned to soil. In blood the minerals of rock” (207), so not only is Niedecker a reflection, but every thing with blood is a reflection, of the rock. With this type of ideology in mind, one can understand her frustrations with the relationship she had with Louis Zukofsky and the rejection she suffered from him. Zukofsky is a huge influence upon her writings but it is what she wrote to her friend, Cid, that sheds light upon her opinion of Zukofsky and his response to the manuscript she sent him, “He thinks of it as biography, I think of it as chunks of beautiful literature, something he wrote not just for me but the world” (200). Even though much of her life was lived withdrawn, Niedecker was quite aware of her existence and placement in this world, as well as others. Her description of (Zukofsky’s) life as, “chunks” whereas the etymology of chunks, may come from the word, “chuck” as in, “chuck a rock”, “of beautiful literature” is reflective of her fascination with rocks and, “that impurities in rocks made them beautiful” for she claimed that Zukofsky was, “afraid of gossip” and thus, he must not want his “impurities” exposed (206). What Zukofsky views as gossip, Niedecker views as beauty. Her association of stone with home is reflective of her thoughts on cycles. “Niedecker believes in a universe in which what dies is re-created, long before she told Al on the trip, “You can see how we return to our source. And there is never any death. After ‘death’ there are life cycles, even tho inanimate”” (208). For Niedecker, impurities are the source of her poetry. Her