[New-Poetry] Re: US Poets Laureate by gender

[David Graham]

In that case I suppose it would be only fair to look fairly closely  
at the quality of the work of the Poets Laureate in context.  Joseph  
Auslander and not Marianne Moore, for instance?  Louis Untermeyer in  
place of Langston Hughes?  Daniel Hoffman, Reed Whittemore, and  
William Jay Smith but not Adrienne Rich, Carolyn Kizer, Denise  
Levertov, Ruth Stone, or Lucille Clifton?

The selections always reflect the literary politics of their times.   
That's a given.  In this case I just think some fairly big blind  
spots are on display.

I'm not even sure that laureates should be chosen based solely on the  
quality of their work; but even if that were my opinion, I'd say the  
selections have been notably spotty in this regard.


========================================
David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu

Home Page:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz

Poetry Library:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
==========================================




On Jul 20, 2008, at 10:59 AM, Linda Sue Grimes wrote:

> The politics of race, gender, class is distracting:  the only thing  
> that matters in all areas is the quality of the work and  
> character.  In MLK's stance, it is the "content of character," not  
> "color [gender, class] of the skin," by which any candidate  for  
> any position should be judged.
>
> lsg
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David Graham
> To: NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &Views
> Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 9:13 AM
> Subject: [New-Poetry] US Poets Laureate by gender
>
> The Consultant/Laureate position dates back to 1937, when Joseph  
> Auslander served as our first national poet.  (Who?)  Initially  
> there was no fixed term; he served until 1941.    Of the seven  
> poets named in the 1940s, three were women:  Louise Bogan, Leonie  
> Adams, and Elizabeth Bishop.  After that things got worse for  
> gender equity; the next woman named was Josephine Jacobsen, in  
> 1971.  In other words, no women at all served in the 1950s or  
> 1960s; par for the course in terms of poetic politics in those  
> days.  What's a little eye-opening is how little things changed as  
> the women's movement flourished in the 1960s and 70s, for Jacobsen  
> in 1971 was it for both those decades.  Next was Maxine Kumin in  
> 1981.  Gwendolyn Brooks  came in 1985.  From 1992 on we've had Mona  
> Van Duyn, Rita Dove, Louise Gluck, and now Kay Ryan.  So, nothing  
> close to gender equity even in the past 2 decades, when one might  
> expect more attention to such matters.
>
> As measly as representation by women assuredly has been, take a  
> look at racial balance if you'd like to see some real disparity. . . .
>
> 1937-1941 — Joseph Auslander
> 1943-1944 — Allen Tate
> 1944-1945 –Robert Penn Warren
> 1945-1946 — Louise Bogan
> 1946-1947 — Karl Shapiro
> 1947-1948 — Robert Lowell
> 1948-1949 — Leonie Adams
> 1949-1950 — Elizabeth Bishop
> 1950 - 1952 — Conrad Aiken
> 1952 — William Carlos Williams
> 1956-1958 — Randall Jarrell
> 1958-1959 — Robert Frost
> 1959-1961 — Richard Eberhart
> 1961-1963 — Louis Untermeyer
> 1963-1964 — Howard Nemerov
> 1964-1965 — Reed Whittemore
> 1965-1966 — Stephen Spender
> 1966-1968 — James Dickey
> 1968-1970 — William Jay Smith
> 1970-1971 — William Stafford
> 1971-1973 — Josephine Jacobsen
> 1973-1974 — Daniel Hoffman
> 1974-1976 — Stanley Kunitz
> 1976-1978 — Robert Hayden
> 1978-1980 — William Meredith
> 1981-1982 — Maxine Kumin
> 1982-1984 — Anthony Hecht
> 1984-1985 — Robert Fitzgerald
> 1984-1985 — Reed Whittemore
> 1985-1986 — Gwendolyn Brooks
> 1986-1987 — Robert Penn Warren
> 1987-1988 — Richard Wilbur
> 1988-1990 — Howard Nemerov
> 1990-1991 — Mark Strand
> 1991-1992 — Joseph Brodsky
> 1992-1993 — Mona Van Duyn
> 1993-1995 — Rita Dove
> 1995-1997 — Robert Hass
> 1997-2000 — Robert Pinsky
> 1999-2000 — Special Bicentennial Consultants, 1999-2000: Rita Dove,  
> Louise Glück, and W.S. Merwin
> 2000-2001 — Stanley Kunitz
> 2001-2003 — Billy Collins
> 2003-2004 — Louise Glück
> 2004-2006 — Ted Kooser
> 2006-2007 Donald Hall
> 2007-8 Charles Simic
> 2008--  Kay Ryan
>
>
> ========================================
> David Graham
> grahamd at ripon.edu
>
> Home Page:
> http://web.mac.com/drjazz
>
> Poetry Library:
> http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
> ==========================================
>
>
>
>
>
>
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