SOURCE: “Lisel Mueller and the Idea of Midwestern Poetry,” in Regionalism and the Female Imagination: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Emily Toth Ph.D., Human Sciences Press, 1985, pp. 67–80.

In the following essay, Solyn analyzes Mueller's definition of Midwestern poetry.

Any discussion of Midwestern poetry begins as a task of definition. In part this is because there is no school or movement that is accepted as Midwestern poetry, although there may be some benefit in that since the lack of a self-conscious school precludes arbitrary definitions. But the difficulty goes beyond the lack of a formal movement. If Midwestern poetry is defined as poetry written by Midwesterners, one must define the Midwest—no easy task in itself, for it is hard to argue that the industrial states of the Great Lakes have very much in common with the farming and ranching states of the Great Plains. For...