I agree with John. Ezra Pound is an important poet who never ravishes me with his poems. Gertrude Stein, ditto. They are merely interesting. Weldon Kees is a minor poet who regularly "wows" me with his poems. I believe in the dictatorship of taste. Democracy in all other things, but when it comes to poetry it's all about the "wow" factor.

Wow. Ezra Pound, in my opinion, wrote some of the most wow-inspiring poems in English. The Seafarer, Envoi from Hugh Selwyn Mauberly, the sonnet A Virginal, and many, many more. Plus, many of his translations from the Chinese are now standard fare, with good reason.

I agree, his politics, particularly his anti-semitism, were atrocious, and his personality, well, I doubt I would have wanted to hang out with him. And, sure, the Cantos are very hard to read, once you get past the first dozen or so. But the early lyrical pieces were some of the best ever. In my opinion.

Ah, I decided to delete this post. The thread is about how much we like poetry, not about poets we dislike. Sorry for getting off track!

No problem, Tony. I appreciate your views, and as I said, his political views and his rabid anti-semitism were just bottom of the barrel. But genius works in strange ways. And according to the Pound biography I read, whose title and author escapes me at the moment, Pound renounced his hateful views in old age, and he was very sorry for them. Whether this is true or not, who knows. I do know that age has a mellowing effect, and Pound did live a long time.

To really get at Pound, to appreciate his skill as a poet (apart from all the stuff that makes one want to despise him), you need to read his first three or four books. In them there's a lot that reads like juvenalia, and a lot of truly awful experimental, trendy (for the times), Imagist stuff; but amidst all that there are quite a few precious gems, at least to my ear.

I have a book by Arthur Sze, The Redshifting Web, and I sang his praises at my former workshop board, PFFA, many years ago. He's a wonderful poet, and yes, I would agree a much finer example of a human being than Pound.

William,

That was the reply of a true gentleman. And who knows? Maybe the next time I reread Pound the bells will ding and the whistles shriek and the train will roar into the station (of the metro).

Best, T

And how. Cummings' Complete Poems* was, without a shred of doubt, the book that I read in the least amount of time. I think it took me two or three nights. It's a fat book, but the poems don't run one after another as in some collections. At the end of each poem, however small, we go to the next page. So there's a ton of empty space. Nonetheless, there are a LOT of poems in this collection. We go from Cummings' beginnings as a beautiful, formal lyric poet, to some of the most eccentric experiments with style, form, syntax, and typography, that have ever been or probably ever will be. He goes from the ridiculous to the sublime at the drop of a hat, and he's as subtle as can possibly be. He'll make you cry one minute and laugh out loud the next (you have to check out some of his prose poems in the collection: they are beyond hilarious).

But I don't know which particular poetry book to select, since I've only read the Complete Poems (or is it Collected Works*? I don't remember and the book is buried somewhere abouts...), and I don't wish to nominate two in a row*, so I'll leave that to my betters.

*didn't know then that we could only choose 2 altogether.

I also agree on Cummings. I have only his selected, and his collected (which I don't know as well as I should), so I can’t single out a volume. I’d add the he is one of the best poets of sensuality that I have read. I think he must have been something in the sack…

And “Since Feeling is First” is one of my very favorite poems, anywhere, anytime.

So where is Fenton? I think John W. should get a pass, and be able to select THREE.

Meanwhile, Robinson isn't officially on the list yet either. Frank, why don't you add the Mezey edition...

David R.

I'm surprised the list has made it this far without Wilbur? I've read relatively little and have been waiting for some recommendations.

22: The Blue Estuaries by Louise Bogan
 

This is a collected but it's thin and her poetry is so consistent in both theme and style it has more the feel of a single volume. It can be said that over her career her work changes too little for her to be considered a major or important poet. That's a question for the critics who know more than I do. I like it that you can open this book up at random and find poems such as "Statue and Birds" and "Medusa" and "Night."

Night

The cold remote islands
And the blue estuaries
Where what breathes, breathes
The restless wind of the inlets,
And what drinks, drinks
The incoming tide;

Where shell and weed
Wait upon the salt wash of the sea,
And the clear nights of stars
Swing their lights westward
To set behind the land;

Where the pulse clinging to the rocks
Renews itself forever;
Where, again on cloudless nights,
The water reflects
The firmament’s partial setting;

—O remember
In your narrowing dark hours
That more things move
Than blood in the heart.

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Estuaries...stuaries+bogan