Pulitzer Prize Poetry Winner
Of Being Numerous
by George Oppen
Summary
The title serial poem turns a philosophical, fragmentary lyric onto the riddle of how an individual exists within a city and a populace. Oppen writes in stripped, weighted lines whose silences carry as much meaning as their language, in keeping with his Objectivist roots. The work stands as one of the great political and philosophical long poems of the century.
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Historical Context & Significance
Oppen was an "Objectivist" who had given up poetry for 25 years for activism and carpentry before returning to win.