i'm not against slight observations in free verse,
but the way this particular poem has been turned
into an icon & a manifesto is absurd. (why couldn't
it've been his poem on the plums in the fridge? i
like that one lots better--at least it SAYS something.)
it is true a lot of us hate Williams for the way he
seemed to give license to all manner of chopped-prose
poeticules & he's not responsible for them any more
than Whitman is, but even if you put in line-breaks
more reasonable than the ones he chose, there still
aren't many good poems in the lot.
--the trouble is, i think, this weird sort of literary
nationalism that makes poets go looking for ancestors
& a canon that is bounded by our 2 oceans & the 40th
parallel (or whatever it is). not only British, not only
Canadian, Australian & all the poets in post-colonial
societies who chose to write primarily in English--not
only these are our peers & our tradition: but also every
poet everywhere we can get our minds around even if only
darkly in the mirror of translation...
"American Literature" is a brand label without even
teaching value.
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