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Unread 10-30-2017, 10:57 AM
Quincy Lehr's Avatar
Quincy Lehr Quincy Lehr is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
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The question of "New Formalism" seems to me to divide into two parts:

1. An aesthetic justification and active practice of metrical/rhymed verse without necessarily being a C.H.U.D. about it. Mission accomplished. If "New Formalism" had its share of missteps, turkeys, etc., and a whole, whole lot of mediocre verse, well, so have lots of movements. The point is, there is a far greater acknowledgment in the U.S. that one can viably do metrical verse that is contemporary and not forced than, say, twenty-five years ago, or even when I started submitting around a dozen years ago.

2. Academic politics. Here's where it matters. In which direction does the MFA program at Ivy League State want to go? Do they want another "experimental" poet? A "formalist"? And so on. It becomes a matter of branding, as well as a matter of cheap polemic to define one's continued relevance. Kick around the UPenn poetry web site to see what I mean. Langpo is old enough to drive, vote, drink, and have a receding hair line, but it still needs to periodically justify the "avant-garde" reputation it has accrued. So there will be periodic attacks on the form crowd, who may more may not hit back. Does any of this help American poetry? Not especially. Does it keep a few careers going? Certainly.
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