I just read the article, and I wasn't impressed with it. Putting on airs isn't unique to literature; we do it every time we open our mouths. Poets and sophisticated readers understand that the speaker in a poem is always a fictional character, even when the speaker closely resembles the author.
From time to time I hear somebody say something like "poetry is truth". But poetry is really fiction. Even if a poem is based on a real event, a good poet will not hesitate to sacrifice the truth if doing so will improve the poem. The truth of poetry is in its message, not in its details, but even the message can be exaggerated or romanticized.
Even if Frost and Plath were representing themselves in their poems, human beings have always represented themselves in the best light; it isn't news that poets do that also.
[This message has been edited by Caleb Murdock (edited May 08, 2001).]
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