The Edge by Robert Creeley
"The Edge" by Robert Creeley is a poem that encapsulates the poet's exploration of linguistic boundaries and the nature of existence. Characteristic of Creeley’s style, the work is structured in compact three-line stanzas that reflect an introspective examination of edges in both thought and action. Each stanza conveys a sense of uncertainty, with a tentative movement that suggests a journey through ambiguous meaning—a theme that mirrors the uncertainties of life itself. Creeley employs a repetitive and experimental approach to language, revealing a continuous search for significance through small, incremental actions.
The poem emphasizes that uncertainty does not lead to inaction; rather, it fosters a dynamic process of discovery. This sense of exploration is evident as Creeley articulates the challenges of understanding and the struggle to find meaning amidst the chaos of existence. The poem culminates in the assertion that life teeters on the brink of comprehension, inviting readers to reflect on the fluidity of experience and the perpetual quest for clarity. Overall, "The Edge" serves as a poignant illustration of Creeley's commitment to tracing the limits of language and perception while embodying the complexities inherent in the human experience.
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Subject Terms
The Edge by Robert Creeley
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1983 (collected in Mirrors, 1983)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
The insistent inspection and dissection of linguistic possibility for which Creeley was known reaches a kind of peak in “The Edge.” The very short, elliptic word-unit common to Creeley’s style throughout his writing life is fused into compact three-line stanzas, which are linked by a continuing focus on edges or boundaries in thought and action, poetry and life. Each stanza has a tentative hold, and then a release into the next one; a hesitancy that occurs after almost every unit of meaning.
Creeley suggests that the poem itself is unclear in its way or course, “this long way comes with no purpose,” just as the life it expresses seems unsure of its direction as the poet continues seeking, experimenting, testing, trying, and measuring language and form. Uncertainty does not preclude action, however; the poem’s tentativeness is not an indication of paralysis but of an effort to discover a true course after many missteps. The poem itself expresses the poet’s desire to construct or discover meaning through the repetition of small actions:
I take the world and lose it,
There is no end to this, and the poem does not have an ending, only another thrust further into being, as the poet proclaims “This must be the edge/ of being before the thought of it! blurs it.” As Charles Molesworth aptly observes, poems such as this one are “a dramatization of the limits of Creeley’s existential, improvisatory stance,” statements where language and thought shift perception even as it occurs.
Bibliography
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Clark, Tom. Robert Creeley and the Genius of the American Commonplace. New York: New Directions, 1993.
Edelberg, Cynthia. Robert Creeley’s Poetry: A Critical Introduction. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1978.
Faas, Ekbert, and Maria Trombaco. Robert Creeley: A Biography. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2001.
Ford, Arthur. Robert Creeley. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1978.
Foster, Edward Halsey. Understanding the Black Mountain Poets. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995.
Fox, Willard. Robert Creeley, Edward Dorn, and Robert Duncan: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1989.
Oberg, Arthur. Modern American Lyric: Lowell, Berryman, Creeley, and Plath. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1977.
Rifkin, Libbie. Career Moves: Olson, Creeley, Zukofsky, Berrigan, and the American Avant-Garde. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
Terrell, Carroll, ed. Robert Creeley: The Poet’s Workshop. Orono, Maine: National Poetry Foundation, 1984.
Wilson, John, ed. Robert Creeley’s Life and Work: A Sense of Increment. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987.