Terese's entry offered much that I intended to respond to earlier. I don't have any agenda at all for this thread, and only posted my own "Afterward" as a reminder to Sphereans that this is one genre they can tackle if they choose. The wonderful British poet James Fenton published a brief essay in the New York Review of Books a while back in which he called upon contemporary poets to try verse drama again. Those of us who review new books of poems often feel (I do, anyway) that contemporary poetry has become a meeting place of poor technique and insignificant subject, rendering the art utterly boring to all but poets. Perhaps narrative verse, like dramatic verse, offers pathways to significance. The fact that Terese has worked in both ballad measure and blank verse is commendable, I'd say, and if she or anyone else would like to post narratives for all of us to see on this thread, I'd be happy to go with that. I do intend to post a new thread on dramatic voice pretty soon, and Tim's idea of talking about career paths is also fine with me.
PS: I should add that the new contemporary American poetry anthology being edited by April Lindner and Sam Gwynn contains a larger number of narrative poems than most. And Story Line pPress will publish an anthology of narrative poems edited by Sonny Williams this fall. I very much look forward to both books.
[This message has been edited by David Mason (edited August 15, 2004).]
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