Read the winning piece of our 2025 Nonfiction Contest “Through the Mirror” by Jessie Cato selected by Lucy Ives.

Read

June 25, 2007 • KR Blog • Writing

The Poetic Voice

By Tyler Meier

I was recently visiting a friend who happens to be the grandaughter of John Crowe Ransom. She told the story of some unpublished poems had been discovered by scholars doing research on JCR’s papers at the Jean and Alexander Heard Library at Vanderbilt University, and assuming that they belonged to Ransom, found a publisher for them at Michigan Quarterly Review, in their Summer 2006 issue.

You can find MQR’s editor’s note introducing the poems here. (MQR, by the way, has a wonderful searchable archive–you really can find anything you want using their search page.) The editor’s note quotes the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, which alludes to Ransom’s inimitable voice.

Funny thing is, the poems aren’t by Ransom–at least not that Ransom.

My friend explained that they were actually written by her mother–John Crowe Ransom’s daughter–Helen Ransom Forman. In her early 20s, Helen did a lot of typing for her father, and it appears that her poems were collected with his papers held at Vanderbilt, and re-discovered as her father’s poetry during recent scholarship on his work. The family cleared the confusion while reading the Summer 2006 MQR.

Delightfully, the poems themselves lend to the confusion–they are worthy, and of the elegant quality that one might confuse them for Ransom poems–and point to Helen’s considerable prowess as a poet in her own right.

Best American Poetry 2007 editor Heather McHugh saw fit to pick one up for the soon-to-be-published 2007 edition. It’s clear (from e-mails that we traded) that she’s just as pleased by the magical authorial switcheroo as anyone else–and as we must suspect the elder Ransom would be, as well. (One always near and dear to everyone at KR–JCR founded the Kenyon Review in 1939.)

All of this begs the question–how distinct can a voice be? Can you copy voice? If you re-type Anne Carson’s work, will your own begin to come out like Carson’s? Or Whitman’s? Or Joyce’s? Or Dickinson’s? What makes someone’s voice their voice?

Helen Ransom Forman, what other poems have you been keeping from us?

About the Program

The Kenyon Review Associates Program provides Kenyon students with valuable experience in literary editing, publishing, and programming. KR Associates work closely with Kenyon Review staff, gaining valuable experience in a number of editing, publishing, and programming areas including manuscript evaluation, publicity and marketing, copy editing, developing web site and social media content, outreach programming, event planning and promotion, and other creative and editorial projects

KR Associates attend regular seminars conducted by Kenyon Review editorial staff, visiting readers, and publishing industry professionals. These seminars cover a wide range of topics including editorial philosophy, evaluation of submissions, print and electronic production, marketing, and design.

KR Associates also enjoy exclusive access to visiting writers and speakers, free issues of The Kenyon Review, and valuable work experience and employment references.

This program is made possible through an initiative of the Kenyon Review, part of the mission of which is to contribute to the enrichment of the academic, cultural, and artistic life of the Kenyon College community.

Requirements and Expectations

  • Submission Evaluation: All Associates are required to read and evaluate eight Kenyon Review submissions per week. Associates who are not able to complete their weekly submission assignments for more than two weeks in a row may not be allowed to continue in the program.
  • Trainings and Seminars: In-person attendance is mandatory at all trainings and seminars. We plan on scheduling six to eight seminars per semester, and most will take place on Thursdays during common hour.
  • Literary Engagement: Associates are expected to participate in literary events on campus and throughout the local community.

Application Details

Applications for the Associates Program are accepted each fall. Kenyon students will receive more information about the program and a link to the application via campus email near the beginning of the fall semester.

Questions? Please contact Jamie Lyn Smith for more information.

Back to top