And one more quote with some fact which some complained was missing (directed mosly at UK audience it has to be said). By the the way, anthologies are filled with mediocre male poets taking the place of inifinitely superior ones, some not generally known. Hence the compiling of "Women's Work". Anyway, here's one more quote and then I guess anyone who's interested could buy the book! (It's a good and entertaining read if I do say so myself!)
"I’ll point to the mostly patriarchal Great Poets of the 20th Century, a series of pamphlets published in spring 2008 by the Guardian newspaper in collaboration with Faber. These poets were deemed to be: Siegfried Sassoon, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Sylvia Plath, Philip Larkin, Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes. In Britain at least, it is a truth universally acknowledged that Sylvia Plath and Elizabeth Bishop are the only women poets worthy of admission to the pantheon. Such unanimity of thought in an otherwise divisive world is notable.
Gender issues aside, there’s a strong case for replacing at least two writers on this list, chosen for reasons other than the writing. Surely, Sassoon is included to tick the box marked "war poet"? He cannot be a plausible choice outside of this category. Regardless, this box is more acceptable than the one marked "woman poet", which pertains to the so-called "special interest" group comprising over half this planet's population. Despite lip service to the contrary, criteria other than the writing are always applied, if selectively.
It seems hubris – or a calculated marketing strategy - to define such a small and select part of the canon while some of its authors live; if you dare to, surely knowledge and breadth of vision are prerequisites for the job. Identical and infallible good taste about Plath and Bishop aside, one wonders how many are simply not familiar enough with major women poets’ work to make an informed assessment of the hierarchy. Who really knows the work of Louise Gluck, Denise Levertov, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Kay Ryan, Lorine Neidecker, Adrienne Rich, May Swenson, to name but a few (mostly) Americans? None of these are published by Faber, the Guardian’s partner for the series, but the lack of women on that list is further evidence of the problem. "
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