From Collectivity to Embodiment: Political Engagement in Eileen Myles’s Selected Poetry

Abstract

This paper examines how Eileen Myles’s poetry serves as a potent mode of political engagement. I analyze two poems, “An American Poem” (1991) and “I always put my pussy” (1993), to explore how poetry becomes a site of resistance. By placing these two poems in dialogue I demonstrate how Myles’s political poetry employs two key strategies: collectivity and embodiment. “An American Poem” subverts national narratives by reimagining Myles’s personal identity within the framework of American aristocracy. In contrast, “I always put my pussy” foregrounds desire as a radical political act, demonstrating how Myles uses embodiment to reimagine national belonging. The analysis of these poems is situated within Myles’s 1992 presidential campaign to illustrate how poetry becomes part of their broader political activism. Myles’s poetry operates as both a critique of hegemonic structures and a visionary act, showing the potential of poetic language to reimagine resistance.