The State Of English Poetry

[poliphilo]

This arises out of a discussion about English poetry I've been having with veronica_milvus .

It's my belief that we're living in an age of minor poetry. These occur every so often.  Usually because a major poet has been active in the previous generation and said everything that needs to be said.
 
Great poets are incredibly rare.  They're the ones that change the language and alter the sensibility of those who speak and write it.  English literature has had 9 of them. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, Keats, Browning, Yeats and Eliot. (Please argue with me over that choice of names). 

The first half of the 20th century was an age of great poetry. Not only did it possess the two great poets- Yeats and Eliot- but also a host of lesser poets- some of them very nearly great. It's not surprising then that the succeeding age- our age- should be so barren. We're still recovering from the impact.

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I plan to pronounce further on this too.

I wonder if it is because the concept of craft as an element of Art has gone. We used to wonder at the craftsmanship of Michelangelo doing the Sistine ceiling or Grinling Gibbons' carving or whatever. Now it all seems to be about a "concept" and immediacy - hence Tracy Emin can claim her unmade bed is Art. So any fool who can read and write can string a few words together and claim it is poetry. We've given up thinking that anything should be hard to learn and admired for its craft.

I think Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes will be remembered. Lawrence Ferlenghetti and Allan Ginsberg - only as a cultural phenomenon and not becuase they "said" anything. It was mostly prattling pseudoprose.

But I would be sad if nobody had anything new to say. I'm working on it, for one!

[gioiaverdi.livejournal.com]

Your point about modern poets may be true, but I think there's a lot to appreciate in today's poets, minor or not. I personally love Larkin, Cope, Atwood, Komunyaaka, Shapcott and a number of new and emerging poets and find they speak to me at a quite profound emotional level.

(As regards the greats, I'd want to include Marvell, and Byron, personally and how can you omit Donne?)