[New-Poetry] Great America

[Bob Grumman]

  On Aug 28, 2006, at 8:41 AM, steve moore wrote:


    "Someone asked whether I think there are any 'great' American poets, or words to that effect, and if the question is 'great poets' in the sense that Shakespeare or Dante are well the answer is no, obviously"


  -----------------



  I for one am not interested in any definition of poetic greatness that does not include Whitman and Dickinson.  "Obviously."  And yes, in precisely the sense that Shakespeare or Dante were great.





  Makes me think about all the essays Donald Hall wrote years back in which he posited that, despite the common language, English and U.S. poets just can't seem to *hear* each other very well.  





  I don't see that, at all.  I'm an American but I think less of Whitman and Dickinson, I'm sure, than most of my British cousins do.  And I value a lot of British poets.  I continue to believe both American and British poets are coming out of the same tradition, differing only the way New England poets differ from poets of the American South, say.  With Americans probably being a bit more daring.



  --Bob G.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/pipermail/new-poetry/attachments/20060828/88229bf6/attachment.html