T.S. Eliot was a big fan of footnotes. Just read “The Waste Land”. I think the notes take up more space than the poem – and it’s a long poem.
I don’t think the New Formalist poets have that problem. From X.J. Kennedy to Dana Gioia, the New Formalist’s have their own problems. But I’m not going to tell you about them here. Instead, I’ll let you read about them at the World Class Poetry New Formalism page.
And if you think you’d like to write a page like that, contact me and let me know.
First, welcome back.
Second, is this the new look or is it only temporary?
On to your article:
//Because of their efforts, the scope of Postmodern poetry was broadened…//
This is the kind of sentence that comes off with all the genuineness of a bone tossed to a dead dog. It’s what you write what you don’t want flame mail.
“Yeah, nobody knows who they are, BUT the scope of Postmodern blah, blah, blah…”
OK, I’ll take the heat, and I’ll do it because I write using meter and rhyme.
1.) They are footnotes.
2.) They did *not* broaden the scope of postmodern poetry. In fact, the one book of their “movement” is OP.
3.) Their poetry isn’t all that good. Their primary spokesmen were the worst practitioners. Gioia is a very poor writer of meter and an altogether amateur poet. His formalist skills are unimaginative and uninspired. Steele’s use of meter and rhyme is wooden – the kind of thing the Elizabethans left behind 400 years ago. Even R.S. Gwynn couldn’t muster a formal poem that wasn’t blockish and ham-fisted.
Way back in the 80s when I first started writing, I contacted as many of the proponents as I could. Most ignored me. The rest responded with polite exasperation. They were just too busy to discuss poetry. They hardly behaved like the founders of a “movement” looking to spread the word. They behaved as if the whole thing was just a publicity stunt.
But, setting all that aside, why would any poet want to start a formalist school or movement? The poets who have the skill and commitment to write rhyme and meter will do it whether or not a gaggle of poets declare it their fiefdom. The impulse to write in any given art form shouldn’t be territorial, it should come, as Keats said, like leaves to a tree.
Patrick, there will be a new design coming soon.
I certainly agree with the point on Gioia. I also agree with Keats. Writing is more about one’s voice and less about the form. I wouldn’t want Whitman any other way than the way he wrote. His lines flow because they are intensely Whitman. On the other hand, who can argue that Shakespeare didn’t have some fabulous lines?
In fairness to Gwynn, by the way, I was referring to his contribution in Rebel Angels. Gwynn could have picked a better poem and is capable of it.