Throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries, many poets spent their careers attempting to “hijack…writing from the readable” (McCaffery , 150) and to create an avant-garde form. of new and innovative poetry. Language poetry was first on this stage, primed and ready to go, according to Andrew Epstein in his essay "Verse Vs. Verse," an "oppositional movement." (46) The only problem is that in most avant-garde movements it doesn't take long for intellectual interest to follow. By creating “self-conscious [and] fragmented” works (Epstein, 48), language poets were able to limit their art to a “small circle” (Epstein, 15) of intellectuals. Contemporary poetry then experiences a series of different movements, each adopting new maneuvers. Unfortunately for contemporary poetry, there comes a time when new innovations become difficult and it is rather new adaptations of familiar formulas that become avant-garde. This very regression, the loss of the avant-garde movement, is found in the poetry of Tao Lin. The re-emergence of the lyric in poetry marked the death of a poetic revolution. When language poetry first appeared on the poetry scene in the late 1970s, it was introduced by a small group of poets who "shared a passionate devotion to the most avant-garde arts." side of American poetry- to the experimental” (Epstein, 46). This poetry was not intended for the general public, it was poetry intended as “art for a privileged few” (Epstein, 15) willing to engage in conversation with the literature they read. Linguistic poets “require a reader who [is] an active participant rather than a passive consumer.” (Epstein, 47) It is this very opposition to literary tradition that not only made these works appeal to a select milieu...... middle of paper ...... Works Cited Abrams, MH « Modernism.” A glossary of literary terms. 9th ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. 201-04. Print. Epstein, Andrew. “Worms against verses. » Lingua Franca (2000): 45-54. Print.Epstein, Joseph. “Who killed poetry? » (1988). Print.Harmon, William and Hugh Holman. "Lyrical." A literature manual. 10th ed. 304-05. Print.Hejinian, Lyn. “The rejection of closure.” The language of inquiry. Ed. Lyn Hejinian. Los Angeles: University of California. 40-58. Print.Hejinian, Lyn. Writing helps with memory. Los Angeles, California: Sun and Moon, 1996.Print.Lin, Tao. Cognitive-behavioral therapy: poetry. Brooklyn, New York: Melville House Pub., 2008. Print.McCaffery, Steve. “Linguistic writing: from the productive economy to the libidinal economy. » NorthOf Intention: Critical Writings 1973-1986. Ed. Steve McCaffery. New York: Roof. 143-58. Print.