Stylistic Perspective Across Kenneth Fearing’s Poetry: A Statistical Analysis

Abstract

Many literary critics have praised Kenneth Fearing’s lyrical ability to convey the consumer culture of his time. One means by which he achieved his unique style was through lexeme repetition, occasionally mimicking advertisement marketing. In later years, some critics claimed that Fearing was merely reworking his earlier, successful material. To determine if Fearing’s poetry demonstrates a stylistic change, this study undertakes a statistical analysis on Fearing’s work by looking across his six major poetry collections. I establish the hypothesis that Fearing does go through a stylistic shift and that his later work neither replicates nor imitates his earlier poetry; instead, the data reveals that Fearing did indeed develop and enter a new phase of poetic style in later years.