[Barbara Baig]

Oops--sorry, Gregory! That's what I get for posting at the end of the day.

I have edited my previous post to accurately (I hope!) second your suggestion.

Barbara

[William A. Baurle]

Roethke was called a strong influence by so many poets after him that it'd be crazy for him not to be included. I'm choosing his first book because of the impact it made, and because, like Frost and Stevens, he waited quite a while before making his debut. But more importantly, at least for the Sphere, it contained so much good solid formal work, whereas in his later books he really began to go off into strange territories. I'll admit that I admire Roethke a great deal, but his poems have a certain coldness, or lofty detachment from the general rabble, and I don't warm to them nearly as much as I do to the work of Auden, Spender, or MacNeice. And I'll also admit that some of his more radical poems, of the later period, are completely unintelligble to me.

[Tony Barnstone]

I agree with John. Ezra Pound is an important poet who never ravishes me with his poems. Gertrude Stein, ditto. They are merely interesting. Weldon Kees is a minor poet who regularly "wows" me with his poems. I believe in the dictatorship of taste. Democracy in all other things, but when it comes to poetry it's all about the "wow" factor.

[William A. Baurle]

Originally Posted by Tony Barnstone

I agree with John. Ezra Pound is an important poet who never ravishes me with his poems. Gertrude Stein, ditto. They are merely interesting. Weldon Kees is a minor poet who regularly "wows" me with his poems. I believe in the dictatorship of taste. Democracy in all other things, but when it comes to poetry it's all about the "wow" factor.

Wow. Ezra Pound, in my opinion, wrote some of the most wow-inspiring poems in English. The Seafarer, Envoi from Hugh Selwyn Mauberly, the sonnet A Virginal, and many, many more. Plus, many of his translations from the Chinese are now standard fare, with good reason.

I agree, his politics, particularly his anti-semitism, were atrocious, and his personality, well, I doubt I would have wanted to hang out with him. And, sure, the Cantos are very hard to read, once you get past the first dozen or so. But the early lyrical pieces were some of the best ever. In my opinion.

[Tony Barnstone]

Ah, I decided to delete this post. The thread is about how much we like poetry, not about poets we dislike. Sorry for getting off track!

[William A. Baurle]

No problem, Tony. I appreciate your views, and as I said, his political views and his rabid anti-semitism were just bottom of the barrel. But genius works in strange ways. And according to the Pound biography I read, whose title and author escapes me at the moment, Pound renounced his hateful views in old age, and he was very sorry for them. Whether this is true or not, who knows. I do know that age has a mellowing effect, and Pound did live a long time.

To really get at Pound, to appreciate his skill as a poet (apart from all the stuff that makes one want to despise him), you need to read his first three or four books. In them there's a lot that reads like juvenalia, and a lot of truly awful experimental, trendy (for the times), Imagist stuff; but amidst all that there are quite a few precious gems, at least to my ear.

I have a book by Arthur Sze, The Redshifting Web, and I sang his praises at my former workshop board, PFFA, many years ago. He's a wonderful poet, and yes, I would agree a much finer example of a human being than Pound.

[Tony Barnstone]

William,

That was the reply of a true gentleman. And who knows? Maybe the next time I reread Pound the bells will ding and the whistles shriek and the train will roar into the station (of the metro).

Best, T