[New-Poetry] Zimmer et al.

[David Graham]

On May 9, 2006, at 6:53 PM, JforJames at aol.com wrote:

> The Zimmer poems always strike me as thinly disguised
> alter-ego poems.
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Thinly disguised?  I would have thought that the name Zimmer would be  
a tip-off:  not  really a disguise at all!

But yes,  there's a useful distinction here, between true persona  
poems and those, like Zimmer's or like Berryman's Henry, that really  
are stand-ins for the poet.

Patricia Smith has a poem, "Skinhead," that's one of the most  
successful recent persona poems I've seen.  And it's most obviously  
not Smith's alter ego!

In contrast, I've never been very convinced by Ai's personae, I  
confess.  They all seem to bleed together, and sound rather like Ai  
to my ears.

==========================================
David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu
Home Page:
http://www.ripon.edu/faculty/GrahamD/index.html
Poetry Library:
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