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Articles

Volume 06, Number 1 (1981)

The Wounded Eye: The Poetry of Douglas Le Pan

  • J. M. Kertzer
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1981-01-01

Abstract

Douglas Le Pan can be considered an imagist poet in the sense that he bases his poetry on carefully observed particulars which he then expands and explores as a means of conveying thought. This movement of thought around a single image or from one image to another can be seen clearly in his earlier and shorter poems as well as in the longer war poems. Occasionally, in keeping with imagist theory, Le Pan's poetry expresses confidence in the justice of language and the adequacy of the image; that is, the poetry shows faith in the ability of art to interpret reality. Yet, more often, Le Pan complicates the theory of the imagists by challenging the power of poetic language and suggests that the image is sometimes not adequate to the task demanded of it. Moreover, he also challenges the pictorial power of his imagery by portraying a failure of perception.