Charles Olson 1910–1970

R. B. Kitaj (1932–2007)
>Color screenprint, 1969

Enlarged image

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of R. B. Kitaj Estate

Charles Olson 1910–1970
R. B. Kitaj (1932–2007)
Color screenprint, 1969

Charles Olson closely mirrored Ezra Pound in the scope and conception of his work. He constructed a huge poetic edifice centered around a fictional everyman character (who lived in Gloucester, Massachusetts) called “Maximus,” through whom streamed a voice that was both vernacular and mythic.

Again, like Pound, Olson was distrustful of modern life and history, viewed progress as a swindle, and thought that rationalism was an impediment to authentic self-expression. He called modern life the “pejorocracy,” as in “love is not easy / but how shall you know, / New England, now / that pejorocracy is here.”

The Maximus Poems (1953) sprawled across the page in a torrent of words and images, a personal poetic vision that one is stunned into admiring but that is so idiosyncratic that it is hard to comprehend, let alone encompass.



I, Maximus of Gloucester, to You
Off-shore, by islands hidden in the blood
jewels & miracles, I. Maximus
a metal hot from boiling water, tell you
what is a lance, who obeys the figures of
the present dance

Charles Olson
From “The Maximus Poems,” 1953

Enlarged image

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of R. B. Kitaj Estate
© R.B. Kitaj Estate