[Michael Juster]

To help me with an essay/book review I have been asked to write, regardless of your own tastes, who do you think are the two poets born in 1945 or later whose work is most likely to survive in 2045?

No more than two--or you won't get your trophy for participation!

[Gregory Palmerino]

Michael,

Excellent question. I think I know what you mean, but would you mind clarifying what you mean by "survive." Do you mean relevant? Studied? Emulated? Anthologized? Revered? Unfortunately, with the Internet, everything is going to survive. Also, a hundred years from a person's death seems like a better timetable, but I don't know what you're writing about.

Thanks,
Greg

[Orwn Acra]

Actually, Gregory, nothing will survive with the Internet.

My answers are Christian Bok, whose Eunoia will be remembered as an exemplar of constrained writing, and A. E. Stallings, who will probably still be alive.

[Michael Juster]

I mean "survive" in the sense that Auden survives but Delmore Schwartz doesn't.

[Lightning Bug]

Well, damn... there goes my top choice.

OOoo... wait this is better:

I was going to say Marion Shore, but you said born after '45... .

[Ian Hoffman]

You're basically asking, "Who do you think are the most important poets born from 1945 till now?" Since those are the ones whose work, like Auden's, should survive.

That's hard to call. They probably aren't formalists.

I hope Paul Muldoon makes it.

Maybe I'd put Charles Bernstein on that list. He's an experimentalist who makes work I actually like.

[Gregory Palmerino]

Originally Posted by Michael Juster

I mean "survive" in the sense that Auden survives but Delmore Schwartz doesn't.

With Michael's definition in mind, I would say any poet who is able to cross into the popular domain the way Auden did and Schwartz didn't (see the Cambridge Companion to W.H. Auden, 2004). Most of the non-reading public these days would know Auden from the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral. I've been teaching college students for twenty years and there would be no difference between Auden and Schwartz if they were writing a research paper on twentieth century poets, which probably says more about my teaching, I'm sorry to say. In any case, I would say someone like a Sherman Alexie who is popular even if you've never read his poetry, which I don't. I often tell my students that A.E. Stallings is my favorite living poet but I don't think her work will "survive" unless it takes off into the public's imagination and not just in the minds and on the bookshelves of lovers of poetry. For the poet to survive, his or her work has to achieve mainstream stature. That doesn't usually happen by the poetry alone. These days anyway.

Best,
Greg

[Kyle Norwood]

My own tastes aside, two poets who have "crossed over into the popular domain" and are likely to still be there in 2045 (if that is really the category you are interested in) are Wendy Cope and Billy Collins.

If the question is "what poets born after 1945 will seem in 2045 to have the stature of someone like Auden," I would say "none." But (my own tastes aside) I imagine that Jorie Graham and Anne Carson will still have devoted readers. My third choice (which I know doesn't count) would be Kay Ryan.

I would guess that in 2045, the generation of 1945-1970 will seem just as hard to define as it does now. Perhaps it will be seen as a period with hundreds of good poets but no great ones.

[Gregory Dowling]

Originally Posted by Gregory Palmerino

I often tell my students that A.E. Stallings is my favorite living poet but I don't think her work will "survive" unless it takes off into the public's imagination and not just in the minds and on the bookshelves of lovers of poetry. For the poet to survive, his or her work has to achieve mainstream stature. That doesn't usually happen by the poetry alone. These days anyway.

Well, here's another vote for A. E. Stallings. I'm not sure whether what you say is entirely true, Greg. After all, Wallace Stevens has never achieved mainstream stature (unless having a few poems regularly included in anthologies qualifies) but there's no doubt he's a survivor.

[ross hamilton hill]

Pretty crazy to assume anything, one 'great' tra la tra la, poet is probably on death row for a crime he didn't commit, the other is some housewife in Leeds who keeps her poems in a biscuit tin.