Abstract

Rapid technological change affects humans in any era or culture, but increasingly in contemporary society. The subject of technology in Robert Pinsky’s poetry is clearly a topic for extended study. In his role as intermediary between the technological and literary cultures, Pinsky displays in his poems an ambivalence that reflects larger social attitudes toward, and philosophies of, technology. I intend to examine Pinsky’s role as contemporary poet by analyzing how his poems illuminate the current human condition, now inextricably linked to technological change. Pinsky’s deliberate ambivalence toward technology positions him as a gap mender as described by Stephen Jay Gould.