[Jack Land]

deleted, January 11

[Nick McRae]

One of the challenges is that inspiration isn't something we consciously control, and a lot of what we know or which resonates to us is rooted in our own experiences.

So to have discovered an interesting theme AND have the writing skill to present it well isn't something that happens too often. I think you could go as far as saying that this takes a near mastery of poetry.

To me this is why so much poetry is rooted in imagery. The focus is usually on beautiful language rather than a resonant idea, because we can control the former but not the latter. And really, I think most readers are in it for the language.

But if you can hit the language and concept that's usually going to be a more enjoyable poem.

[Maryann Corbett]

For what it's worth:

I recently read Joshua Mehigan's essay in Literary Matters about the poetry of the late David Ferry, and I was struck by how often Ferry's poems observe other people in compassionate ways. They're about his own experiences, but the focus is not himself.

Of course Ferry does write those more interior poems too, but it seemed worth pointing out that writing about what one has experienced doesn't have to produce moi-poems.

[Roger Slater]

I think we can all come up with examples of both good and bad poems rooted in personal experience, as well as good and bad poems not rooted in personal experience. Where a poem falls on the "personal experience" spectrum, I would suggest, has little or nothing to do with whether the poem is any good. I agree, though, that writing from personal experience (by which I mean specific biographical or familial situations that many or most readers have not experienced themselves) has its own pitfalls. Perhaps it's no different than normal conversation. Sometimes we are fascinated by hearing another person tell us his experiences, sometimes we are bored. All the fun's in how you say a thing?

[Nick McRae]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

I think we can all come up with examples of both good and bad poems rooted in personal experience, as well as good and bad poems not rooted in personal experience. Where a poem falls on the "personal experience" spectrum, I would suggest, has little or nothing to do with whether the poem is any good. I agree, though, that writing from personal experience (by which I mean specific biographical or familial situations that many or most readers have not experienced themselves) has its own pitfalls. Perhaps it's no different than normal conversation. Sometimes we are fascinated by hearing another person tell us his experiences, sometimes we are bored. All the fun's in how you say a thing?

Yea, I guess my point was more a long the lines of the self being the starting point for poets. What people actually enjoy reading isn't always immediately obvious, and in some cases might not even be a concern as the poems are more akin to a journal.

To pick up a sense of what actually reads well takes some level of experience, and time. And in some cases the right inspiration just isn't there at all, if it can't be derived from one's own knowledge and experience.

[Shaun J. Russell]

Just chiming in for a little clarification. As mentioned, I have no problem with Plath herself or her poetry. Truly. I bought a copy of Ariel when I was a teenager first getting into poetry and loved it then, and can still appreciate her work now. My point is that her style is often imitated, and poets who do often strive for the grandiosity of the personal and fall short because they're not Plath. Just an important addendum to my too-vague comments above.

[John Riley]

Roger’s point is obviously true. My point isn’t that good poems can’t be drawn directly from personal life but that now, at this moment, there is a heavy, even gigantic, number of poems that attempt to do so. I don’t see much of a mixture.

[Nick McRae]

I wonder if we're seeing more of it these days because becoming a published poet is much more accessible than it was in the past.

We only come across great work from the past because there's survivorship bias at play. The only poetry that still exists from prior eras is quality work.

[Gail White]

I've enjoyed this thread very much. The only comment I have to make is that a poet going on and on about his own life in blank verse (I'm looking at you, Wordsworth) wears out my interest early on.