Dave, you wrote:
Janet,
Are you asking what I think about the longer poems of Eliot and Auden? I wrote a dissertation onAuden's longer poems and could go on about them, if you like.
I'm really asking whether you think there is any life left in older forms such as the redoubled sonnet's connected string of 15 sonnets, or do you think our modern aesthetic directs us more comfortably to more "organic" forms which grow out of our speech and film/video experience? The necessary virtuoso re-use of lines in the redoubled sonnet may seem like an affectation to modern readers.
The long poems of Derek Walcott are led by the shape of their narrative although they refer to older forms.
Unfortunately I don't own a copy of "Omeros" so I can't discuss it specifically. I have only read it once.
Omeros
I would love to know what you think of Auden's longer works.
Janet
[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited September 01, 2004).]