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Unread 07-06-2020, 04:33 PM
W T Clark W T Clark is offline
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Join Date: May 2020
Location: England
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The nineteenth century was a difficult time for American poets. Faced by the pervasive influence of England and Romanticism in general, and the force of Emerson and Twain to make a new American idiom, many poets had a tough job. Maybe then, it's a little unfair to longfellow, when faced with such geniuses as Dickinson and Whitman, to destroy much of his critical regard. I mean, he couldn't of known that free verse would become all the range, or that there was a woman with a talent level comparable to a world-class poet busily and quietly drawing up a vast oeuvre. Much American verse — apart from Whitman and Dickinson — from that time comes across as somewhat stilted because the British influence lay heavily on it. I feel sorry for Longfellow, but I'd rather read Dickinson in a flash.
This new poet probably has the same problems. There is for me definitely some stilted language, I agree with as much as that. But the two first sonnets are quite good. Yes, the first is pretty sensual, and the second has hints of Dickinson and Stevens, along with its own distinctive voice.
He seems to me one of the gems among the mostly stagnant American versifiers. A nineteenth century Bradstreet?

Regards,
Cameron
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