[New-Poetry] Carol Ann Duffy gets the laurels

[Judy Prince]

oh dear, and welcome back, Uche.  I'm a relative newcomer to NP, but recall
Robin having talked so well of you, of your being on NP some time ago.
I've been wanting to like Carol Duffy's poems, really really wanting to like
them.  But I do not.  Without using poetry jargon, I'll say that her work's
pedestrian and 'reaches' hard to do poetic things.  I do not feel that she's
mediocre *because* she is popular or *because* she writes simply; these are
not qualities that militate against excellent poetry.

She gives no fresh-beauty collidings of words and images, and a reader feels
as if it's necessary to help her along somehow whilst reading her poems.
 The Latin chanting of a train perhaps theoretically could work, but it
actually fails frightfully.  None of its called-up images works happily with
the others.  Here is a train chanting, and one thinks of nuns with rosary
beads saying "Hail Marys" whilst rounding the tracks towards Houston
Station.  The little engine that could [pray in Latin].  Just not an image
that evokes much besides an imminent train crash or ruler-slaps and
paddlings, or for us in the USA, Sally Field in *The Flying Nun* nuisancely
flying round the tracks.

If Duffy has had editors, and surely she has, then WHAT WERE THEY THINKING,
besides ignoring their job as editors?  Did they say to themselves:  "Aha!
 Just what the young folk want--simple stuff that passes as poetry!  YES!
 Work up a study guide or two, a few lovely syllabi to tuck into those
deliciously heavy backpacks!"  And some of the editors had to be saying: "Do
not touch her 'common touch'---it's pure, it's her, it's them, it's The New
Something!"

Again, I will say what I always say:  writing good poetry's damned
difficult.

I have done a good poem or two and can't figure out how I did them.  All the
rest of mine are crap, tho hardwon crap.  And I don't get better at it.  I
just get more aware of how awful it is.

But folks---I'm not applying to be a Poet Laureate of anybody's country!
 However, now I think I might just go ahead and apply.  P'raps in 10 years,
with a nice polished new double citizenship [USA and UK], I'll be recognised
as writing the New Something poetry and be in line to demand 600 butts of
sack.

Best,

Judy

2009/5/2 Uche Ogbuji <uche at ogbuji.net>

> maryann wrote:
> > Hello, new member here. We're amassing a fair collection of links to
> > some of her poems and articles about her over here:
> >
> > http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showthread.php?t=7440
> >
> > My introduction to her was her sonnet "Prayer," which is widely
> > anthologized. I figured it hadn't been mentioned here because everybody
> > knew it, but in case I'm wrong, here's a link:
> >
> > http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/987.html
> >
> > The sonnet appeals to me much more than the sly and amusing pieces that
> > are being quoted in the recent articles.
>
> Hmmm.  Yuck.  Some people think John Ruskin's "pathetic fallacy" is any
> random anthropomorphic trope, but they're wrong.  There is nothing wrong
> with anthropomorphic trope in general.  The problem is when a
> characterization of an inanimate object is meant to carry the *entire*
> metaphorical force of the expression.  *That* is what Ruskin rightly
> ridiculed, and *that* is how this sonnet offends in spades:
>
> ... and stare
> at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.
>
> ... hearing his youth
> in the distant Latin chanting of a train.
>
> Those are the most sophomoric bits to me, and it made it hard for me to
> appreciate anything else in the poem.
>
>
> --
> Uche Ogbuji                       http://uche.ogbuji.net
> Founding Partner, Zepheira        http://zepheira.com
> Linked-in profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ucheogbuji
> Articles: http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/publications/
> friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/uche
> _______________________________________________
> New-Poetry mailing list
> New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
> http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/pipermail/new-poetry/attachments/20090502/b908e290/attachment.html