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Unread 07-01-2001, 01:43 PM
Michael Juster Michael Juster is offline
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David Mason, one of the more new renowned New Formalists, has a short appreciation of Wilbur in the most recent issue of The Dark Horse. One might think that expressing admiration for The Great One is the literary equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel, but David took an interesting approach to his essay that I wanted to mention and praise.
Among Wilbur-worshipers, there is a hierarchy of poems that they generally admire. One of the few poems they tend to quietly look down upon is one of my favorites, "For The Student Strikers". David singled this poem out for praise, and I think he is absolutely right to do so. Poetry should be a public act about something important to readers, and a poem that makes an important, nonobvious political point should be a cherished item instead of something relegated to the wastelands outside of our lyrical/confessional playgrounds.
We have largely lost the ability to write great political poetry since Auden and Yeats were in their prime, and "For The Student Strikers" is one of the great exceptions to the generalization.
Bravo to David Mason for saying something important in a very brief essay!
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Unread 07-01-2001, 02:12 PM
ChrisW ChrisW is offline
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Just wanted to say, I'm glad it's one of your favorites, too. "For the Student Strikers" always moves me -- which is certainly a rare thing for political poems.
It seems to be addressed to the "side" the poet is most sympathetic with -- and this is (part of) how it avoids the awful self-righteousness that gives political poetry a bad name. Amazingly, the poem actually offers a sort of practical (but also moral) advice about how to achieve the striker's ends (in fact it is a kind of counsel against self-righteousness).
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