[For] Duncan "the beauty of a poem is a configuration … that leads back into or on towards the beauty of the universe itself." This process in poetry leads to the production of the poem of resonance in which meanings, far from arising gratuitously [as some critics suggest], slowly build in a process of accretion. To understand the building process one must be aware that the idea of configuration is central to Duncan's poetics since for him the idea of a poem evolves organically from a particular locus "in relation to its environment of language and experience." Elements in the poem grow out of their relationship to each other as predicated upon their relationship to an order beyond the limits of temporal perception. This is the poem of resonance, a poem in which each element is charged with meaning reinforcing and extending each other in an ever-widening gestalt. (p...