Loy's poetry

The two poems I particularly liked were "Gertrude Stein" and "There is no Life or Death." Loy's use of end alliteration (?) in the second poem of words such as "activity," and "declivity," etc. contributes a graceful quality to the poem. Moreover, her writing style in both of these poems seems in accord with the Modern thematic of sparse language in favor of elegance.

"Aphorisms" had so much depth -- they read like wonderful proverbs. It is as if Loy offers the beauty of poetic language alongside proverbial wisdom. I can see why she dubbed herself a futurist; many of her ideas and concepts seemed quite advanced as evidenced through the "Feminist Manifesto." She makes several commendable assertions about feminism and the virtues of women, but also points out the challenges that face them. Her views on sexuality, chastity, and "purity" seem far advanced for her time pointing out the debarring limitations of these concepts and also encouraging women to think beyond the conventional paradigms. While there is a raw intelligence to the Manifesto, there is also a stripping of sentimentality that I found slightly intriguing. For example, she asserts that "honor, grief, and pride" must be detached from sexuality. She seems to push women to take this concept to a level that is not merely physical, but also intellectual and emotional. Yet, preceding this acute observation she somewhat surprisingly states that "Woman must destroy in herself the desire to be loved." However, I'm wondering if this is more metaphoric than literal. Any ideas? Maybe we'll discuss some aspect of this in class.