The Ghetto, and Other Poems

"A terrific poet, in both senses of the word. . . . Like Blake, she can evoke innocence and experience in a way that blurs the ambiguous boundary between them."--Robert Pinsky "This edition, aided by reader-friendly notes, will bring significant attention to these important poems and Ridge's world."--Susan Stewart At last recovered in this enriching annotated edition, this important but neglected work of American modernism offers a unique poetic encounter with the Jewish communities in New York's Lower East Side. Long forgotten on account of her gender and left-wing politics, Lola Ridge is finally being rediscovered and read alongside such celebrated contemporaries as Hart Crane, William Carlos Williams, and Marianne Moore--all of whom knew her and admired her work. In her time Ridge was considered one of America's leading poets, but after her death in 1941 she and her work effectively disappeared for the next seventy-five years. Yet The Ghetto and Other Poems is a key work of American modernism. The long title poem is a detailed and sympathetic account of life in the Jewish Ghetto of New York's Lower East Side, with particular emphasis on the struggles and resilience of women. Subsequent sections delve further into city life, and immigrant experience, and the labor movement. This critical edition seeks to recover the attention The Ghetto, and Other Poems lost after Ridge's death. The poems in the volume are as aesthetically strong as they are historically revealing. Their language combines strength and directness with startling metaphors, and their form embraces both panoramic sweep and lyrical intensity. Lola Ridge (1873, Dublin-1941, Brooklyn) was a poet and editor active in many radical causes and in avant-garde literary circles in New York in the decades between the world wars. Lawrence Kramer is Distinguished Professor of English and Music at Fordham University.