Timothy Steele

For people similarly named, see Tim Steele (disambiguation).
Timothy Steele
Born (1948-01-22) January 22, 1948 (age 76)
Burlington, Vermont, U.S.
EducationStanford University
Brandeis University
SpouseVictoria Lee Steele

Timothy Steele (born January 22, 1948) is an American poet, who generally writes in meter and rhyme. His early poems, which began appearing in the 1970s in such magazines as Poetry, The Southern Review, and X. J. Kennedy's Counter/Measures, are said to have anticipated and contributed to the revival of traditional verse associated with the New Formalism.[1] He, however, has objected to being called a New Formalist, saying that he doesn't claim to be doing anything technically novel and that Formalism "suggests, among other things, an interest in style rather than substance, whereas I believe that the two are mutually vital in any successful poem."[2] Notwithstanding his reservations about the term, Steele's poetry is more strictly "formal" than the work of most New Formalists in that he rarely uses inexact rhymes or metrical substitutions, and is sparing in his use of enjambment.[3]

In addition to four collections of poems, Steele is the author of two books on prosody: Missing Measures, a study of the literary and historical background of modern free verse; and All the Fun's in How You Say a Thing, an introduction to English versification. Steele was an original faculty member of the West Chester University Poetry Conference, and received its Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award in 2004.

  1. ^ Brogan, T. V. F. "New Formalism." The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, eds. Alex Preminger and T. V. F. Brogan. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1993, p. 835.
  2. ^ "Timothy Steele". www.poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation. 18 May 2023. Archived from the original on October 3, 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  3. ^ Leithauser, Brad. "The Strictest Line." TLS, February 19, 1988, p. 180.