[New-Poetry] Sizing up Seidel

[Suzanne Baran]

Good points!  I have never read an entire book by Seidel...

On 12/11/06, David Graham <grahamd at ripon.edu> wrote:
>
> I don't think we have any "best poet"--certainly not one that a
> significant number of readers would agree on.   The scene is too fragmented,
> contentious; and the numbers are simply too huge.  Even if Helen Vendler
> wanted to read all the books published every year, she couldn't.   No one
> could.
>
>
> Still, what struck me about Kirsch nominating Frederick Seidel for Best
> Poet was that Seidel isn't even remotely a Usual Suspect in any camp I know
> about -- his name recognition, even among poetry addicts, is far far less
> than, say, Jorie Graham, Michael Palmer, Gerald Stern, Adrienne Rich, Dana
> Gioia, Ron Silliman, John Ashbery, Philip Levine, Carolyn Kizer, Rita Dove,
> Albert Goldbarth, Louise Gluck, and many dozens more who spring to mind.
> His lack of presence in most anthologies, course syllabi, critical studies,
> and academic conferences would also indicate that, despite his prestige
> publisher, he's a dark horse oddball.
>
>
> Not that there's anything *wrong* with being a dark horse oddball, of
> course.  And not to say he's a poor poet, necessarily.  I haven't read
> enough yet to make a judgment, myself.  I'll admit that Sam Gwynn's review
> did not encourage me to make an immediate Amazon order of Seidel. . .
>
>
> But if recent response on this list is at all indicative, he's not on many
> of your short lists for major poet, either.  Aside from Sam Gwynn and Jim
> Finnegan, can we have a show of hands?  How many of you have ever read an
> entire book by Seidel?
>
> ==========================================
>
> David Graham
>
> grahamd at ripon.edu
>
> Home Page:
>
> *http://www.ripon.edu/faculty/GrahamD/index.html*
>
> Poetry Library:
>
> *http://www.ripon.edu/faculty/GrahamD/poetrylib.html*
>
> ==========================================
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-- 
"It is the gravity of what we do not express that
smothers the beauty our hearts disguise, our first great breaths, our
unknown perfections, the summons of our most brazen blood, and the tolling
of our truest tears."  -- J. Ryan Stradal
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