Comments on: Food For The Soul

Food For The Soul

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 06:19:27 -0800

From The Guardian so Brit bias... Introduction, William Boyd on Siegfried Sassoon, John Banville on Seamus Heaney, Jeanette Winterson on Ted Hughes, Andrew Motion on Philip Larkin, Margaret Drabble on Sylvia Plath, Rowan Williams on WH Auden, Craig Raine on T.S. Eliot.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 06:44:47 -0800

Just read Williams on Auden for a refresher and enjoyed it very much. Excellent find, fearful!

By: i_cola

i_cola — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:02:17 -0800

OMG!!! BRIT BIAS!!! ALERT! ALERT!! ~~MAN~~ PERSON THE BARRICADES! DEFEND THE COASTS! NON_US OPINION ALERT!!!! AIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! And so forth...

By: fleetmouse

fleetmouse — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:09:28 -0800

In the 90s the idea of poetry was almost poisoned for me forever by the unbelievable badness and arrogance of the work presented at poetry slams. It's good to be reminded that there's lots of great 20th century poetry knocking around. Some of these guys like Sassoon and Heaney I don't think I've ever read.

By: steef

steef — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:26:08 -0800

I love the photograph they chose for Heaney.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:32:28 -0800

Yes--- why did they put a photo of Gertrude Stein on the cover of Heaney's book, steef?

By: nicolin

nicolin — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:45:53 -0800

Excellent ! thank you

By: sam and rufus

sam and rufus — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:50:33 -0800

i_cola - you beat me to it...

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:23:04 -0800

this is just to say i have skipped over the article that was in this fpp and which was probably thought not to be a dog's breakfast forgive me they are so brit-centric so narrow and so not cool

By: MetaMan

MetaMan — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:33:54 -0800

Here's one of the more underrated British poets of the 20th century. He was an astounding talent, with a small output. Basil Bunting was a true original, a master in a way of verbal rhythm and onomatopoeia Here's more and more and more and more.

By: steef

steef — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:41:55 -0800

What's all this complaining about Brit-centrism? Plath and Eliot were both 'Mericun (though Eliot switched teams), and Auden became a USian in '46.

By: digaman

digaman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:46:38 -0800

Basil Bunting! Meta, you have restored my faith in MeFi for another six months. One very American poet who was heavily influenced by Bunting in mid-career: Allen Ginsberg. I attended some of Ginsberg's lectures at Naropa on the subject. What The Chairman Told Tom by Basil Bunting Poetry? It's a hobby. I run model trains. Mr Shaw there breeds pigeons. It's not work. You don't sweat. Nobody pays for it. You could advertise soap. Art, that's opera; or repertory -- The Desert Song. Nancy was in the chorus. But to ask for twelve pounds a week - married, aren't you? -- you've got a nerve. How could I look a bus conductor in the face if I paid you twelve pounds? Who says it's poetry, anyhow? My ten year old can do it and rhyme. I get three thousand and expenses, a car, vouchers, but I'm an accountant. They do what I tell them, my company. What do you do? Nasty little words, nasty long words, it's unhealthy. I want to wash when I meet a poet. They're Reds, addicts, all delinquents. What you write is rot. Mr Hines says so, and he's a schoolteacher, he ought to know. Go and find work.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:52:50 -0800

"Bunting on MetaFilter - so good it's almost a gerund!" Great post, thanks.

By: aught

aught — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:34:52 -0800

Those interested in 20th c. British poetry and who don't require traditional meter or rhyme might also try out Basil Bunting, T om Raw orth, Ger aldine Monk, Maggie O'Sullivan, Bob Cobbing, Bill Griffiths, Edwin Morgan, Denise Riley, Ken Edw ards, Eav an Boland, Barry MacSweeney, Jon Sil kin, and Douglas Oliver (among many others). (It's sad but I guess inevitable how many poets who envigorated poetry in the 50-70s have passed away in the last decade or so.)

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:44:33 -0800

And Jonathan Williams has just been added to that sad list. I'd do a post but I don't have the time or the heart. RIP, you lovable gadfly.

By: taliaferro

taliaferro — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:53:58 -0800

Ha! I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Briggflatts - basically arguing that despite Bunting's personal dislike of Eliot, Briggflatts is the long poem that Eliot would have written had he written a long poem in 1965. That is, Bunting's view of a highly regional community shaped not just by race but by language and sound (Bunting once said that if you couldn't read Briggflatts aloud in the accent of Northumberland, you couldn't fully understand the poem - or something to that effect) was the natural end-point of Eliot's own progressing view of community, which in The Waste Land was almost global and became increasing nationally- and even regionally-oriented in works like The Hollow Men and Four Quartets.

By: Powerful Religious Baby

Powerful Religious Baby — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:07:31 -0800

Weird lists call for weird responses--Frances Leviston says it doesn't matter that only one woman makes an appearance. Todd Swift responds.

By: sonic meat machine

sonic meat machine — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:55:23 -0800

One of my favorite 20^th century poets is almost never read. His name is Edward Dorn, and he wrote Gunslinger, a comic-epic of incredible vitality and energy. Is he a great poet? I'm not sure—but he's certainly a readable, entertaining one, and that's something missing in a lot of modern poetry.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:53:34 -0800

As usual, the ~~broadsheets'~~ quality papers' promotional giveaways for the month are suspiciously identical: Great Poets as chosen by the Indy, presented in the form of dinky booklets and the odd CD, just like the Grauniad. Still, beats all those sodding wallcharts.

By: the littlest brussels sprout

the littlest brussels sprout — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:25:46 -0800

I have a hard time taking Margaret Drabble seriously, because I always imagine that her articles are written and read out loud by June Drabble.

By: digaman

digaman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:27:16 -0800

My God, who knew that MeFi was a virtual ghetto of Buntingheads? That's wonderful, Taliaferro. Another fine American poet who was profoundly influenced by Bunting -- and heard him read Briggflatts in person -- is August Kleinzahler [bio] [on Creeley] [poems online, but not his best]. Sonic, I once saw Dorn read through all of Gunslinger. It was mindblowing.

By: Powerful Religious Baby

Powerful Religious Baby — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:38:23 -0800

Man, I had forgotten how great that Gunslinger cover is. I could sleep forever curled up in that G.

By: taliaferro

taliaferro — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:46:02 -0800

Thanks digaman - I'll have to check out more of Kleinzaahler. I really like that first poem you linked to, particularly the slide back into iambs at the end. I also like this description of his poetry from the bio: "like a rummage sale after the death of someone who adored both Shakespeare and smut."

By: taliaferro

taliaferro — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:47:30 -0800

I'll also check out more of spelling people's names correctly. I really like extra 'a's.

By: luciaisdada

lucia__is__dada — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:45:03 -0800

Brit bias... No Betjeman, so...not THAT biased.

By: Hypocrite_Lecteur

Hypocrite_Lecteur — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:43:10 -0800

Not so much a Brit bias as an aesthetically conservative bias, I'd say. I like several of the poets here quite a lot, so my problem isn't that they've been included. But it's sad that it's hard to imagine Bunting or Tom Raworth on the Guardian's list of the century's "greatest poets," and I think they deserve to be there as much as anyone else does.

By: sonic meat machine

sonic meat machine — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:41:17 -0800

digaman, I envy you that. Was he a good speaker? I know next to nothing about him.

By: steef

steef — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:48:39 -0800

lucia, everyone knows Betjeman is overrated. ;)

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:42:08 -0800

I don't think Heaney's a Brit either. But they probably only put Plath in the list because the Hughes haters would cause a stink if the didn't.

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:47:21 -0800

My bad. Born in N.I. so he is.

By: digaman

digaman — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:58:13 -0800

Sonic, yes he was. Dorn had that grizzled outlaw vibe, old-school macho illuminated by a subtle muse. It was a wonderful reading.

Comments on: Food For The Soul

Food For The Soul

By: Dizzy

By: i_cola

By: fleetmouse

By: steef

By: Dizzy

By: nicolin

By: sam and rufus

By: pyramid termite

By: MetaMan

By: steef

By: digaman

By: languagehat

By: aught

By: languagehat

By: taliaferro

By: Powerful Religious Baby

By: sonic meat machine

By: jack_mo

By: the littlest brussels sprout

By: digaman

By: Powerful Religious Baby

By: taliaferro

By: taliaferro

By: lucia__is__dada

By: Hypocrite_Lecteur

By: sonic meat machine

By: steef

By: seanyboy

By: seanyboy

By: digaman

By: luciaisdada