A Quick Take on "American" Poetry

As I am at present in quite the patriotic mood, I seek to pose a particular question: Is there any doubt that we, as truly American poets, should perpetually and relentlessly fight over each word we roll out from our language until the utmost havoc is wrecked upon the very concept of immutability? It seems that as our nation has been built upon a foundation of shifting mud, and that even a thing so concrete as our famed constitution is a battleground for meaning, we American poets can do no greater justice to our national heritage than to recognize this indisputable fact.

The pun, ladies and gentlemen, in its firmest principles, should be seen as a call to arms for American poets. It is a most active battleground that we all must step out onto. See the example of Mark Twain, whose very name executes the doubleness of language, and who many regard as the first uniquely American of all our literary masters.

If we look past the humorous nature of the pun, we can see the deeper roots of its possibilities, and then just perhaps we might recognize our national identity intertwined therein.