I just noticed this. One starting point will seem peculiar to poets: I strongly advocate reading fiction, reading all the fiction you can get your hands on. If you want a spritely sense of contemporary dialogue, try Tim O'Brien and Don DeLillo. I recommend the novels of Shirley Hazzard, Patrick White, John McGahern, and Barry Unsworth (esp The Songs of the Kings). I recommend the plays of Tom Stoppard and Brian Friel.
For dramatic voice and narrative in verse, the best thing you can do is read Shakespeare till the pages wilt in your hands. Read the Fitzgerald versions of Homer and Virgil. Read the bloody Victorians--all of them.
Read narrative poems by James Fenton, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, Mark Jarman, Brad Leithauser, Marilyn Nelson, Sam Gwynn..................
Read all of Bobby Frost. Then re-read him. Read Robinson Jeffers. even when he pisses you off. Remember, he who reads only what conforms to his taste is doomed not to grow. Find writers who expand what you are willing to read and attempt.
Read all of Anthony Hecht, the one poet of his generation who has had a genuinely dramatic and narrative talent (Wilbur's dramatic talent went into his translations).
People who read only what they agree with in advance are not real readers. Real readers read everything, and I mean everything. I once met someone who would not read Shaw because of Shaw's socialism. That is a reader who will never grow, because Shaw is an immense writer, and I mean immense. If you are a real reader you will read Shaw and be amazed at his breadth.
Read Shaw, even when he pisses you off. Then read him again.
Read the fascist Knut Hamsun. He was a great story teller. he was utterly wrong as a human being, but even in the translation of Robert Bly, he is very good as a storyteller.
I recommend reading Glyn Maxwell, who will sometimes take some work for you. But read him. That guy is going places. Read Michael Donaghy--everything you can find by him, including his classic dramatic monologue called "Black Ice and Rain."
I am continually amazed by how narrowly poets read. Unless you read widely you are not really engaged in this business.
[This message has been edited by David Mason (edited September 05, 2004).]
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