[New-Poetry] Does no one write good poetry criticism?

[Bob Grumman]

jforjames at aol.com wrote:
> It seems Zapruder is asking critics to do a lot of hand-holding. 
I think it a duty of critics to hold hands.  Seems to me one goes to a 
critic either for help, or to compare notes.  And people do need help 
with unconventional poetry.
> And, as far of critics who have mounted 
> defenses of difficult work, has he missed all the excellent and 
> thoughtful essays of Majorie Perloff?
Perloff is the only mainstreamer to got outside Wilshberia.  She 
deserves praise for that.  I've read some of her stuff, even have a book 
or two by her.  Haven't seen any excellent essays, though.

--Bob G.

> Finnegan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Grumman <bobgrumman at nut-n-but.net>
> Sent: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:55 pm
> Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Does no one write good poetry criticism?
>
> Michael Snider wrote:
>>
>>
>> 2009/3/25 TheOldMole <Opus40-01 at opus40.org <mailto:Opus40-01 at opus40.org>>
>>
>>     Except Bob Grumman?
>>
>>     http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/feature.html?id=186047
>>
>>
>> Maybe not!
>>
>> Does anyone else think it's a little weird that the guy associates 
>> "narrative" and "conservative" on the one hand and "lyric" and 
>> "experimental" on the other?
>>
>> Mike, bewildered.
> Strange piece, for me.  I kept thinking I got the writer's drift, then 
> lost it.  Oddly, I was thinking about narrative and lyric as two 
> distinct kinds of poems--but certainly not as conservative and 
> "experimental."  Narrative poets do seem to me more conservative than 
> other poets, including lyric poets, but most lyric poets seem almost 
> as conservative.  The language poets are contemptuous of both 
> narrative and lyricism.  I'm big on lyricism but not on narrative. 
>
> I think I may well be the sort of critic Zapruder is calling for, but 
> I think it'd take him thirty years to realize it if he seriously 
> wanted to find his kind of critic.  He seems not to have much of a 
> clue as to what's going on in poetry.  Or poetry criticism.
>
> --Bob
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