[RCL]

Notes of an Old New Critic

Can it truly be a poem if
It isn’t in a formal shape
It isn’t in a well-known meter
It isn’t cleverly ironic?

It isn’t what’s ambiguous
It isn’t with organic rhymes
It isn’t opposed to paraphrase
It isn't paradoxical?

It isn’t easily read or taught
It's read as if a history text
It's a poet’s biography
It’s biased Lib or GOP?

It's a Frenchman's deconstruction
It's by an AI robot written
It isn’t a solo Verbal Icon
It isn’t a very Well-Wrought Urn?


For most of you out there, way way way younger than I am, the last two lines refer to manuals of close-reading approaches that English grad students and instructors slept with in the 1950s and 60s. From a weakening memory:

W.K. Wimsatt, The Verbal Icon
Cleanth Brooks, The Well-Wrought Urn