I completely agree that it's nice to curl up with an old friend and know the "voice." Whether that be so idiosyncratic a lyricist as Father Hopkins, or a man of many voices like Browning.
I infinitely prefer a recognizable voice, and I am amazed that I ever developed that. Child that I was, I thought I would forever imitate my great predecessors. I couldn't foresee a life that ventured outside the bounds of the books I devoured.
I do fear that Tom's exercise with FV could be repeated in sonnet form. One can seize upon any number of sonnets in Bill Baer's new anthology, or any number that we see at Deep End, and they're damn near indistinguishable. (By the way, Tom, I meant the grad students should get a life.)
Close as they are in life experience, I would never confuse two ploughmen poets, Clare and Burns. Nor could I confuse Robinson and Frost. Or Francis and Murphy. I think that is as it should be, and if you are not writing in a recognizable voice, you have not found the ground you are able to defend.
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