I've got no quarrel about poets speaking in a voice of their own, but Shakespeare, now--what is Shakespeare's voice? I love the guy. If my voice is speaking in many voices, that suits me fine. I also think poets can learn the power of emphathy from fiction writers. Poets can write about a bigger world if they inhabit other people's skin for while. All you have to do is pretend--it's not any harder than what you did as a child pretending to be someone else. As I've said in an essay,l empathy is a civilizing experience. It's an important form of play that adults too often lose sight of.
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