Tender Buttons
The most radical act in American poetry before Ginsberg. Stein's "Objects," "Food," and "Rooms" use language purely as musical and visual material, the meaning hovering between parody, cubism, and domestic lesbian eroticism. "A rose is a rose is a rose" is her most quoted line; the whole collection operates on the same principle, language freed from reference and given back to itself. Its influence on Language Poetry, conceptual poetry, and flarf is immeasurable.
A carafe is a blind glass, and seventy pages later you will either hear music or suspect a prank. Stein severed words from reference on purpose, which means the book cannot fail on its own terms; it also cannot be checked, argued with, or quite remembered. Influence is real. Pleasure is rationed. Reading it twice takes a particular kind of saint.
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
