[New-Poetry] Alfred Corn's blog

[David Graham]

The newest addition to my list of blogs at my Poetry Library (http:// 
web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html) is Alfred Corn's.  I  
highly recommend it; he's been turning out some long & complex  
reflections on poetry.

Here's a snip from his discussion of Helen Vendler's critical taste,  
and tastemaking powers, from yesterday's entry:

"She is only interested in lyric poetry, preferably lyrics of  
Stevensian difficulty. Any whiff of political content disqualifies a  
poem for her, including feminist content. She dislikes narrative  
poetry, dramatic monologues, comic poems. She saves her highest  
praise for grave, philosophical rumination, especially when abstruse.  
This might not matter; we’re all entitled to the taste that we can  
support with cogent, text-based argument. Unfortunately, what it has  
meant is that the poets she doesn’t like only in rare cases move into  
the glowing center of public recognition. This allegation has been  
made before now, and it is always denied. Professor Vendler says that  
she does not make reputations, that only poets can establish the  
reputation of other poets. But the evidence suggests a different  
view. Professor Vendler has earned the right to her opinion where  
contemporary poetry is concerned. It should not, however, be the only  
opinion that counts. American poetry is too large and varied to be  
contained within the Vendlerian aesthetic.

http://alfredcornsweblog.blogspot.com/






========================================
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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