[New-Poetry] Can poetry have greatness?

[David Graham]

History of a Literary Movement

After Margrave died, nothing
Seemed worth while. I said as much
To Grumbach, who replied:
  “The oscillations of fashion
Do not amuse me. There have been
Great men before, there will be
Other great men. Only man
Is important, man is ultimate.”
I can still see him sitting there,
Sipping level by level his
Pousse-cafe. He was a fat man.
Fat men are seldom the best
Creative writers.

The rest of us
Slowly dispersed, hardly
Ever saw each other again,
And did not corespond, for
There was little enough to say.
Only Impli and I
Hung on, feeling as we did
That the last word had not

Finally been said. Sometimes
I feel, I might say, cheated.
Life here at Bad Grandstein
Is dull, is dull, what with
The eternal rocks and the river;
And Impli, though one of my
Dearest friends, can never,
I have decided, become great.

-- Howard Nemerov.  The Collected Poems.  U Chicago Press, 1977.  
[originally in The Image & The Law, 1947]


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

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

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



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/pipermail/new-poetry/attachments/20090226/6dd13c06/attachment.html