Frank O'Hara: His Movie Poems and the Effects They Have

On Society and Pop Culture


In a world where people are judged not just by what they say but how they say it, American poet Francis (Frank) Russell O'Hara has been judged many times over the past fifty years. He has been ridiculed by such literary greats Jack Kerouac, who once said, "you're ruining American Poetry, O'Hara" (Lehman 336), to critics like Marjorie Perloff (who wrote a biography of O'Hara in 1977 titled Frank O'Hara: Poet Among Painters), who readily admits in her revised introduction to this biography in 1997 that she misjudged O'Hara's poetry the first time around, but she now sees that O'Hara's "poetic has come of age" (xiv). Continuing with the criticism (both good and bad) that O'Hara had to deal with during his short life and the many critiques of his life and works after his tragic death, one must ask himself, who is Frank O'Hara and what is his poetry about? Does his poetry transcend the 1950s' New York Poet mentality, or is he (as Perloff warns us against doing) a "mere representation of fifties' queer sensibility" (xiv)? These questions can be difficult to answer, especially when one takes into consideration the "camp" label that has been placed upon O'Hara's poetry. But, is he "campy," and if he is, does his "campiness" make his poetry any less important or take away from the astute observations of the human condition that O'Hara was addressing?

The Answer: No.

Walt Whitman once wrote:

The question, O me!, so sad recurring—what good amid these, O me, O life?


Answer.

That you are here—that life exists, and identity;

That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse. ( )

The last two lines clearly establish what O'Hara did with his poetry in regard the question that...