Well, gee, gosh, golly, thanks. I wish my memory were
better than it is, but I'm getting to be an old man and
it takes a long time to bring things up from wherever
they are stored. (I still have several hundred poems by
heart, but I can't remember whether I got any mail
yesterday or not; or if I did, whether I've answered
any of it yet or merely imagined that I have.) But in
any case, I prefer your title (or any title) to
being called a formalist. I am not a formalist, Old
or New, except in the sense that any poet worth his
salt (or hers) is a formalist by definition, among other
things. The technique is sine qua non, it goes
without saying, but as you know, when you're actually
composing, you're thinking of everything at once. As
Larkin once said, and no one needs to be told what a
magnificent technician he was, "Content is everything."
Right on.
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