No, Mark, I certainly don’t say voice is an illusion. But I agree with Janet that, while some poets settle into one voice, others may find different voices for different poems. Someone or other wrote that “every novel requires its own style” and I think that’s a similar idea.
Another possible analogy is with film actors. One type, let’s call him the Cary Grant model, basically goes through film after film playing essentially the same character. If the character is an interesting or charming one, that works fine, at the cost of narrowing the range of roles he can play. He gets better and better at “playing himself” — though that one screen persona might or might not correspond with the way he is when he’s not working. (Grant was said to be neurotic and unsure of himself, but Tom Hanks is said to be exactly the nice guy he usually plays.) The other type is the versatile actor who can “become” different characters as the scripts may require — an Olivier or a Brando. I know which I’d rather be. I consider poetry to be a kind of drama or fiction anyway.
I’m somewhat sceptical that voice is in all cases identifiable. For instance, you cite Tim’s trimeter, yet I remember a while back (perhaps when you were absent) he and Mike Moran played a trick at the Deep End — each posted a poem by the other. And there were no immediate cries of “That’s Tim!” on Mike’s thread. Of course some writers have a “signature” idiosyncrasy in their phrasing, but I think faced with a work by an undisclosed author most of us would get more clues from the content, the preoccupations, than from the phrasing or meter. Of course I may be wrong; perhaps you can reliably spot an author once you know his/her work inside-out. But again, I think this assumes that authors work in one vein only, whereas some work in many.
And Mark, I too buy little contemporary poetry. People like Heaney are certainly in the libraries (well, maybe not yours) but there’s plenty by a variety of writers available directly in front of you as you read this — on the Web. poemhunter.com is a good one, although some of the poems there have their line breaks munged.
Henry
[This message has been edited by Henry Quince (edited July 10, 2005).]
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