James Wm. Chichetto
Encyclopedia
James Wm. Chichetto is a poet
, artist
, critic
, and a Catholic priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross
, an international religious community that founded and sponsors the University of Notre Dame
, Stonehill College
, the University of Portland
, and King's College, among others.
, Massachusetts
, and grew up in The Berkshires
. He graduated from Stonehill College and studied theology at Holy Cross College in Washington, D.C.
whose faculty later became part of the Theology Department at the University of Notre Dame. He did further graduate studies at Catholic University
, Chicago University, and Wesleyan University
. Following his ordination, he worked in Peru
, South America
, for four years before getting ill, which experience he recounts in a novel, Lazaro. He is the author of several books of poems, most notably a 12 thousand line epic poem entitled, "The Dream of Norumbega: An Epic Poem on the United States of America." It includes the deeds of several American historical characters, including Captain John Smith, General Winfield Scott
, and George Washington
. To date, three volumes of the work (to be issued incrementally) have been published. Robert Peters
, poet and critic who has reviewed Chichetto's earlier works, called "The Dream" a contemporary masterpiece. "He has taken the 'voice portrait genre' [created by Peters] to new directions," notes Peters. Chichetto is a recipient of numerous grants and is currently a professor of Communications at Stonehill College.
Dan Carr, poet and editor (Golgonooza Letter and Foundry Press) and one of his first publishers (Stones, A Litany), notes how Chichetto's poems are "well crafted and strong," especially in regard to their "lyrical power" and "elegiac sympathy" for the exploited and defeated. He also notes that his longest poem, "Stones, A Litany," about the great stones of Cuzco, Peru, has "been performed successfully with music."
Edwin Honig
, poet, playwright, and professor emeritus (Brown University
), says this about his earlier work, Victims: "This is an impressive selection of work by a vigorous young talent....Evocations of Sitting Bull
and Herman Melville
spin from Chichetto's mind -- a stark energy fuses with his special tenderness. Chichetto's forms are varied and skilled....I will watch for more of his work."
George Klawitter, poet, critic, and professor (St. Edward's University
), says this about his Homage to Father Edward Sorin
, C.S.C. : "Chichetto is at his best when he sticks to narrrative. For example, the opening poem [of the book] gives us a clear glimpse of the Sorin entourage riding north to Notre Dame from southern Indiana
, November 16, 1842, the first day of the trip:
The words have been carefully chosen to create a precise picture of the vehicle at odds with the elements. 'Scabbed with ice' is a fresh way of seeing the build-up of ice on wheels; it carries a medicinal flavor of disease, making the road more enemy than not. 'Un-helped by light' is a particularly felicitous combination in that it paints by negative what 'dark' could not do: we can see the cart lumbering along over a winter road even though we are told the light is of little use to the missionaries or to us. It is the eye for detail that makes Chichetto resonate, even when we are at a loss for meaning. For example, the poem 'Father Sorin's Journal: Cholera
Plague, 1849' begins 'Brother rests in the shade, almost unstirring, nibbling on an apple./ Trees shift in the sunlight's shadowy veil.' The picture is delicate and fine, the detail of the apple a wonderful touch, all in a poem supposedly about cholera but which never mentions the disease (beyond the title of the poem) or even hints at it. The Brother under the tree watches birds, shoos a dog, lies down. The reader wonders at the match of title to poem, the riddle worth hours of discussion."
Of all the observers of Chichetto's poetry, possibly Robert Peters
, poet, critic, and professor emeritus (UCLA, Irvine), has been the most insightful, supportive, and nuanced in appraising it. For example, he praises him for "staging himself through Gilgamesh
in Gilgamesh and Other Poems, notes the "beauty of the poems" in general, and singles out lines from his "favorite poem" ("Sugar Cane Fields in Peru
"):
In Homage to Father Edward Sorin, Peters quotes lines from one of the longer poems of the work, "Fr. Sorin and the Great Fire at Notre Dame, 1879" ("possibly the best"), noting the book as a whole "is an important contribution to the 'voice portrait' genre":
Regarding Chichetto's latest work and multi-volume epic on the history of the United States, The Dream of Norumbega, Peters calls the work a "contemporary masterpiece."
Narrator from Volume I:
Narrator in Volume II:
Native Chorus
from Volume III:
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
, and a Catholic priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross
Congregation of Holy Cross
The Congregation of Holy Cross or Congregatio a Sancta Cruce is a Catholic congregation of priests and brothers founded in 1837 by Blessed Father Basil Anthony-Marie Moreau, CSC, in Le Mans, France....
, an international religious community that founded and sponsors the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, Stonehill College
Stonehill College
Stonehill College is a private Roman Catholic college located in Easton, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1948. Situated in North Easton, Massachusetts, a suburban community of 23,329 people, Stonehill is located south of Boston on a campus, the original estate of Frederick Lothrop Ames...
, the University of Portland
University of Portland
The University of Portland is a private Roman Catholic university located in Portland, Oregon. It is affiliated with the Congregation of Holy Cross and is the sister school of the University of Notre Dame. Founded in 1901, UP has a student body of about 3,600 students...
, and King's College, among others.
Bio
He was born 1941 in BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, and grew up in The Berkshires
The Berkshires
The Berkshires , is a highland geologic region located in the western parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut.Also referred to as the Berkshire Hills, Berkshire Mountains, and Berkshire Plateau, the region enjoys a vibrant tourism industry based on music, arts, and recreation.-Definition:The term...
. He graduated from Stonehill College and studied theology at Holy Cross College in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
whose faculty later became part of the Theology Department at the University of Notre Dame. He did further graduate studies at Catholic University
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...
, Chicago University, and Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
. Following his ordination, he worked in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, for four years before getting ill, which experience he recounts in a novel, Lazaro. He is the author of several books of poems, most notably a 12 thousand line epic poem entitled, "The Dream of Norumbega: An Epic Poem on the United States of America." It includes the deeds of several American historical characters, including Captain John Smith, General Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852....
, and George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
. To date, three volumes of the work (to be issued incrementally) have been published. Robert Peters
Robert Peters
Robert Louis Peters is a poet, critic, scholar, playwright, editor, and actor born in an impoverished rural area of northern Wisconsin in 1924. He holds a Ph.D in Victorian literature. His poetry career began in 1967 when his young son Richard died unexpectedly of spinal meningitis...
, poet and critic who has reviewed Chichetto's earlier works, called "The Dream" a contemporary masterpiece. "He has taken the 'voice portrait genre' [created by Peters] to new directions," notes Peters. Chichetto is a recipient of numerous grants and is currently a professor of Communications at Stonehill College.
Selected works
- Poems (1972)
- Stones, a Litany (1980) ISBN 0-939622-06-8
- Dialogue: Emily Dickinson and Christopher Cauldwell (1982)
- Gilgamesh and Other Poems (1983) ISBN 0-939622-38-6
- Victims (1987)
- Homage to Father Edward Sorin (1992, 98) ISBN 0-9618657-4-1
- Reckoning Genocide (2002) ISBN 1-884710-34-4
- Foreword to Perversions of Justice (2002) ISBN 0-87286-416-2
- The Dream of Norumbega, an Epic Poem on The United States of America Volumes I, II, III (2000,'05,'08) ISBN 0-9618657-7-6
Other Selected Publications
The Boston Phoenix; The Manhattan Review; The Other Side; International Voices Review; The Colorado Review; America Magazine; Poem Magazine; Harper's Magazine; The Tablet (London); The Connecticut Poetry Review; Mr. Cogito; The Boston Globe; Christian Century; Combat Literary Magazine; The Vision: Native American Poetry Anthology; Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust; Commonweal; Gargoyle Magazine (Cambridge); American Poets of the 1990s; And What Rough Beast: Poems at the End of the Century; The National Catholic Reporter; East West Literary Journal; Anthology of Magazine Verse Yearbook of American Poetry (1986–88), etc.Critical Reception and Style
Since 1980, his books have sold well in limited editions. He has attracted the attention of numerous writers, editors and scholars, all of whom have acknowledged his talent.Dan Carr, poet and editor (Golgonooza Letter and Foundry Press) and one of his first publishers (Stones, A Litany), notes how Chichetto's poems are "well crafted and strong," especially in regard to their "lyrical power" and "elegiac sympathy" for the exploited and defeated. He also notes that his longest poem, "Stones, A Litany," about the great stones of Cuzco, Peru, has "been performed successfully with music."
Edwin Honig
Edwin Honig
Edwin Honig was an American poet, playwright, and translator.-Life:He has published ten books of poetry, eight books of translation, five books of criticism and fiction, three books of plays....
, poet, playwright, and professor emeritus (Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
), says this about his earlier work, Victims: "This is an impressive selection of work by a vigorous young talent....Evocations of Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull Sitting Bull Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography), also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies...
and Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
spin from Chichetto's mind -- a stark energy fuses with his special tenderness. Chichetto's forms are varied and skilled....I will watch for more of his work."
George Klawitter, poet, critic, and professor (St. Edward's University
St. Edward's University
St. Edward's University is a private Roman Catholic institution of higher learning located south of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. The university offers a liberal arts education and its campus is located on a hill overlooking the city of Austin. The campus's most notable landmark is Main...
), says this about his Homage to Father Edward Sorin
Edward Sorin
The Very Rev. Edward Frederick Sorin, C.S.C. , a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross was the founder of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and of St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas.-Youth:...
, C.S.C. : "Chichetto is at his best when he sticks to narrrative. For example, the opening poem [of the book] gives us a clear glimpse of the Sorin entourage riding north to Notre Dame from southern Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, November 16, 1842, the first day of the trip:
Underbrush scrapes their rusty coach.
The wheels keep turning, scabbed with ice.
The ox-drawn cart seems overloaded
On a road un-helped by light.
The words have been carefully chosen to create a precise picture of the vehicle at odds with the elements. 'Scabbed with ice' is a fresh way of seeing the build-up of ice on wheels; it carries a medicinal flavor of disease, making the road more enemy than not. 'Un-helped by light' is a particularly felicitous combination in that it paints by negative what 'dark' could not do: we can see the cart lumbering along over a winter road even though we are told the light is of little use to the missionaries or to us. It is the eye for detail that makes Chichetto resonate, even when we are at a loss for meaning. For example, the poem 'Father Sorin's Journal: Cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
Plague, 1849' begins 'Brother rests in the shade, almost unstirring, nibbling on an apple./ Trees shift in the sunlight's shadowy veil.' The picture is delicate and fine, the detail of the apple a wonderful touch, all in a poem supposedly about cholera but which never mentions the disease (beyond the title of the poem) or even hints at it. The Brother under the tree watches birds, shoos a dog, lies down. The reader wonders at the match of title to poem, the riddle worth hours of discussion."
Of all the observers of Chichetto's poetry, possibly Robert Peters
Robert Peters
Robert Louis Peters is a poet, critic, scholar, playwright, editor, and actor born in an impoverished rural area of northern Wisconsin in 1924. He holds a Ph.D in Victorian literature. His poetry career began in 1967 when his young son Richard died unexpectedly of spinal meningitis...
, poet, critic, and professor emeritus (UCLA, Irvine), has been the most insightful, supportive, and nuanced in appraising it. For example, he praises him for "staging himself through Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh was the fifth king of Uruk, modern day Iraq , placing his reign ca. 2500 BC. According to the Sumerian king list he reigned for 126 years. In the Tummal Inscription, Gilgamesh, and his son Urlugal, rebuilt the sanctuary of the goddess Ninlil, in Tummal, a sacred quarter in her city of...
in Gilgamesh and Other Poems, notes the "beauty of the poems" in general, and singles out lines from his "favorite poem" ("Sugar Cane Fields in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
"):
Some hundreds [rats] are leaping, caught up in terror,
The encircling fire dropping their eyes
Til out of the fields they stumble deadened
To be chased by rakes and jabbing knives.
Beaten, slit open, and hacked by the crowds,
Their eyes, their tiny guts spill by the road:
Their necks clipped open, their bones shaken red:
All by the side of the road are left dead.
In Homage to Father Edward Sorin, Peters quotes lines from one of the longer poems of the work, "Fr. Sorin and the Great Fire at Notre Dame, 1879" ("possibly the best"), noting the book as a whole "is an important contribution to the 'voice portrait' genre":
He spits into some ashes,
turns cinder over
with his foot. He pushes
some strands of hair
from his forehead, then
brushes his shoulder.
He reaches into the debris
for an old door knob,
then motionless stands over
the door
in black silence.
Later he walks toward the lakes.
He looks out over the plowlines
and across the great silence of water.
"The sky of Indiana still stirs in the lakes," he thinks.
"I can still labor."
That night, throwing his cassock on a chair,
he strips to his waist to wash.
Regarding Chichetto's latest work and multi-volume epic on the history of the United States, The Dream of Norumbega, Peters calls the work a "contemporary masterpiece."
Narrator from Volume I:
"In front of us one night stood Philip:
With head uplifted, copious with hair,
Kingly as chief, confined in speech;
Solicitous to the unnoticed there.
He wore buckskin set thick with wampum beads
And a broad belt so apt for him as king
That said his blood on history wasn't lost
But appeased to play upon his theme.
His face seemed strained, pursued; his look, severe
As when Elijah, reaching for Melkart's
Gold, let his tribemen shield his testament
Until down beaten were their iron hearts;
Or when Paul, heat-hazed at Corinth, cut
Short his small talk that made his journey null
(For weaknesses he laid upon himself),
To strike that fire that the Bible tells.
And so did Philip appear to us
That night: steep, bold for looking up;
A colossus of self-trust."
Narrator in Volume II:
"All this amidst epidemics that left
Flesh in heaps for flies to pick; and frenzied
Maggots swelling like yellowed sores on which
The Conquest shone. These bore the dreaded
Swell of death in village cribs and wigwam,
Bulging in their season's heat as if
To fill Paradise with rot and ravaged bones.
No more would villages be dense with Native
Peoples as pathogens old bred new ones:
Smallpox, measles, typhus -- as if these ails
Were nothing new: only inevitable
Germs before a frost or lagging sun.
Soon elders died and their wisdom with them,
Quenching in death 'bewildering truths' that
Once passed back and forth among generations.
Then tribes on their knees fell to disruption
As if leveled out of heaven's reach,
As emigrants thickened and enslaved Africans
Cleared the land of broken villages,
Abandoned and fenceless for a new god."
Native Chorus
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
from Volume III:
Hear their hammers,
Hear their feet!
The English come
As we retreat!
At first their steps were leaf-like,
The wings of their hearts like tin;
Kiehtan stood at our door it seemed,
Then czar-like let them in!
Now blankets have we all
And moccasins and boots;
But landless sprout our guts
From English roots!
O pity us, O pity us,
Pity us so free,
Contracting in America
At the foot of trees!
Their hammers slam;
We fear their leap.
Hear the talk?
The heart is cheap.
Selected External Links
- http://www.stonehill.edu
- Harris Collection, Brown University/CT. POETRY REVIEW Archives/art http://www.hay@brown.edu
- Contemporary Authors Series, Volume 191 http://www.galegroup.com
- Contemporary Authors, New Revised Series, Volume 165. http://www.galegroup.com
- Robert Peters Papers/ UC, San Diego http://www.orpheus.ucsd.edu
- Poets and Writers Directory http://www.pw.org
- Poets House http://www.poetshouse.org
- Directory of American Scholars, Volume 2, http://www.gale.com
- International Who's Who of Authors and Writers, 2008, Routledge http://www.routledge.com