[Men, Women and Ghosts] Metadata

Title

• Main Title [Men, Women and Ghosts]
• Series Title UNT Special Collections Artifact Photography

Creator

• Photographer: Sylve, Joshua
  Creator Type: Personal

Contributor

• Author: Lowell, Amy
  Contributor Type: Personal
• Former owner: Thomas, Donald
  Contributor Type: Personal
• Donor: Thomas, Donald
  Contributor Type: Personal

Publisher

• Name: The Macmillan Company
  Place of Publication: New York
  Additional Info: 1919

Date

• Creation: 2016-10-12

Language

• English

Description

• Content Description: Photographs of "Men, Women and Ghosts" by Amy Lowell, held by UNT Special Collections. The book is blue with a green spine, the title on a white label at the top framed by lines. Image 2, title page with the page on the left containing publishing information. Amy Lowell's Men, Women, and Ghosts, per her own preface, is meant to be an authentic window into the experience of WWI. It is a collection of 30 poems that had been published five times before this 1919 impression. The reprinting was made possible by electrotype. It was published in New York, but an earlier printing where the electrotype was produced occurred in Norwood, Massachusetts. In the preface Lowell discusses which poems she chose to include in the collection. She excludes “purely lyrical poems” (ix) because she is more concerned with experimenting with vers libre, or free verse that does not subscribe to standardized rhyming and metrical schemes. Lowell classifies many of her poems as “polyphonic prose” and was a forerunner of experimentation with the prose poem in English. Many of her poems in the collection have elements of prose, including “Pickthorn Manor” a story about a woman whose sweetheart is on the front lines. Lowell also constructs poems as one would a musical number, as in “Stravinsky’s Three Pieces ‘Grotesques’, For String”. There are many poems about impression and perception, including “Spring Day” and “Towns in Colour.” The collection is divided into five sections: “Figurines In Old Saxe”, “Bronze Tablets” (which Lowell sees as being most directly about war), “War Pictures”, “The Overgrown Pasture”, and “Clocks Tick a Century”. The multiple printings of this collection, and the production of electrotype plates to make reprinting easy, hint that this was a widely-read collection of poetry. UNT’s copy itself also shows signs that it was given as a gift: there is a Christmas card to “Dear Florence” tucked away in the volume. Lowell’s experimentation with free verse and her aim for a depiction of what life was like for women and men during WWI was most likely a success in her contemporary moment.
• Physical Description: 2 photographs : col. ; 3126 x 2122 px. 2559 x 2010 px.

Subject

• University of North Texas Libraries Browse Structure: Education - Colleges and Universities - University of North Texas
• University of North Texas Libraries Browse Structure: Military and War - Wars - World War I
• University of North Texas Libraries Browse Structure: Literature - Poetry
• Keyword: exhibits
• Keyword: UNT Special Collections
• Keyword: Men, Women and Ghosts
• Keyword: men
• Keyword: women
• Keyword: ghosts
• Named Person: Lowell, Amy
• Keyword: poem collecions

Primary Source

• Item is a Primary Source

Coverage

• Time Period: new-sou
• Coverage Date: 1919

Citation

• Preferred Citation: University Photography Collection (U0458), University of North Texas Special Collections

Collection

• Name: University Photography Collection
  Code: UNTPC
• Name: World War One Collection
  Code: WWI

Institution

• Name: UNT Libraries Special Collections
  Code: UNTA

Rights

• Rights Statement: Reproduction and publication of materials in this collection are subject to the policies of the UNT Special Collections department. Copyright restrictions may apply.

Resource Type

• Photograph

Format

• Image

Identifier

• Accession or Local Control No: UNTA_U0458-2019-003-374
• Archival Resource Key: ark:/67531/metadc1703775

Note

• Display Note: This image was taken for use in the digital version of UNT Special Collections' Spring 2017 exhibit "The Lost Generation: World War I Poetry Selected from the Donald Thomas War Poetry Collection."