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Cambridge UK has (as far as I know) no University literary journal (no mainstream literary magazine at all, in fact) but within the English Faculty there's a nucleus of people who write/encourage/publish modern poetry. Outsiders sometimes refer to them and their friends as "The Cambridge School". They help organise the CCCP (Cambridge Conference of Contemporary Poetry) which happened last weekend.
I attended one session, missing the session where Prynne (mentioned on "Musing on Mastery") introduced Che Qianzi - a founder of the experimental poetry group Yuanyang based in Beijing. As usual I was at first stimulated by the readings. I'll try to contain my impressions within 3 topics
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Tim -
I have to say that with a lot of British poetry, I have sometimes felt a kind of "plague on both your houses" feeling. There are some terrific poets who come from a modernist/avant garde perspective (Roy Fisher, Denise Riley, John James are three that spring to mind, but there are others.) But then there are quite a few who just annoy the hell out of me. Difficulty and allusiveness in poetry is not a bad thing, but one sometimes gets the feeling that the only reason someone is being difficult is that it's not like those mainstream people. Then, I read another dose of defensive irony from a mainstream poet and suddenly I'm back to yawning again. Either that, or it follows trends: everything from Craig Raine's rent-a-sylable to Roddy Lumsden et al getting terribly laddish in the Poetry Review. I think I'm rather inclined to those poets who jump the fences between the camps. John Hartley Williams, Charles Boyle, Martin Stannard, Ian MacMillan (when he isn't in Bradford City's Poet Laureate mode.) ------------------ Steve Waling |
Difficulty and allusiveness,yes, but with some poets it becomes esotericism and elusiveness: like the Snark, a flavour of will-o'-the-wisp. The problem is determining which it is. I'm not sure that Prynne engages in dialogue with his readers: I think his poems are objects which are there and whether the reader responds is up to him. I've heard people who claim to be influenced by Prynne reading their works and understood nothing.
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