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Unread 08-13-2012, 02:00 AM
John Beaton's Avatar
John Beaton John Beaton is offline
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Location: Qualicum Beach, British Columbia, Canada
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Default A "Populist" Poet -- Felix Dennis

On Barbara's "Accessibility and Depth" thread, she suggested looking at how a "populist" poet makes his work successful. For some time, I've been intrigued by Felix Dennis, a British poet who has clearly tapped into the general public's appetite for poetry. There was a thread involving him a while back. As you can see, the Board reaction was quite mixed.

Conversely, he doesn't mince words about the poetry world. This article contains the following:
Quote:
On poetry, he attacks the "closed shop" of the poetry establishment that looks down on his work, and poets whose work is too obscure to have any popular appeal.

"It's total snobbery. They can't make a living out of it - so they make a virtue out of writing incomprehensible gibberish."
He is wealthy and notorious and, according to Wikipedia, one of his books states he has spent over $100 million on drugs and women.

Even allowing that he is excellent at self-promotion (free wine at his poetry recitations), he has clearly struck a chord with the general public far more effectively than most other poets. Here's a TED Talks sample of his work.

I expect others on the Board, especially those from Britain, know much more about him than I do. I think he makes a good subject for a discussion of what makes a "populist" poet successful. I have my own thoughts, but I'll start the discussion by opening it to others first.

He's fighting cancer at the moment. I know this because I've "friended" him on Facebook!

Barbara suggested analyzing a specific poem so here's one to get your teeth into.

John
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