Finished a tentative prospectus and fired it off to my committee chair. When I've gotten more used to the damn thing I'll post it here. We're looking at a 200-pp. diss., minimum. That's actually not so long, but if I go ahead with it I've got an insane amount of reading to do. The Cantos in their entirety, and a re-reading of Paterson; maybe some more Lawrence poems, too. Zukofsky's "A", the whole thing. All of Oppen. Most of Duncan, including his correspondence with Denise Levertov. I think I'm leaving Olson out of it but maybe not, in which case Maximus. Spicer and his circle, the Black Mountain poets. The original New York School, probably. And then at least two contemporary poets with large oeuvres: John Kinsella and Lisa Robertson. Not to mention heaps more critical theory and assorted books on pastoral. The sick thing is that this all sounds like lots of fun. Just not all at once.