These three poems -- aside from one which I think was posted here earlier -- represent my only exposure to Wendy Cope, and they leave me pretty cold. They are almost too plain-spoken, lacking many of the elements that I love about poetry. They don't create a mood. They aren't profound. They don't use language in interesting ways. They don't contain unusual or interesting rhythms. They don't convey their messages with anything resembling subtlety. They don't evoke much emotion. Even the one love poem -- "I worry" -- is pretty perfunctory.
Robert Frost used to talk about the importance of bringing the sounds of regular speech into poetry, but he nonetheless managed to retain those elements which set poetry apart from speech. This poetry sacrifices those elements. Everything but rhyme and a very regular meter are missing. No metaphor, no alliteration, no parallellism. No mystery! It just "says what it says".
If these poems are representative of her work, I am very disappointed.
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Caleb
www.poemtree.com