Frank O’Hara’s Poetics of Personism and His Urban Poem

Abstract

Personism represents the concentrated expression of the poetics and artistic sensibility of Frank O’Hara, a representative poet of the New York School. This essay summarizes three key elements of O’Hara’s poetics as expressed in Personism: the emphasis on personal experience, interpersonal interaction, and the influence of music and painting. It then analyzes how these principles shape O’Hara’s urban poems. This approach provides a multifaceted understanding of O’Hara’s urban poetry, highlighting how his poetics mirror the vibrant and fragmented experience of city life.