World Class Poetry Blog

The Poet Says “Happy New Year!” In His Old Fogey Sweet Way
1 January 2008, the poet @ 6:30 pm

Someone set fire to Frost’s house. Bastards.

Speaking of frost and the new year, VPR discusses the Sylvia Plath poem, “New Year On Dartmoor,” ironically formerly titled, “The Bald Truth about: Frost on Dartmoor in the New Year.”

Sara Tracey confesses on New Year’s Day. And I guess what’s good for the grad assistant is good for the poet, so using this blog as my confessional …

but first, a snippet from Sara:

Confession: I don’t read lit mags very often….So lit mags. I promise I will read more lit mags.

Then she shares her thoughts on “Written in Water, Written in Stone“:

At any rate, many, many of the male poets included in this collection became all the same guy to me: A stodgy little old man who likes to make his girl students cry, (Yes, there is a teacher (or two) in my past who helped shape this perception.) and he was yelling at me all through this book. Telling me that I don’t know enough to even put pen to paper, that every interpertation I have of a given poem is wrong, and that as long as my poems are written in free verse, they are useless, temporary, and ultimately forgettable.

OK, now for my confession:

I’m not very stodgy, but I relate to these older men. Young women with delicate sensibilities need to listen to old men who read poets before World War II. It’s not that I think the old men are justified in their criticism of free verse, but they do have a point about young writers who publish before they are ready. There is a reason many of the poets of the past did not publish their first books until later in life. Writing takes time to really develop. It isn’t like athletic skill where you reach your peak in the late 20s or early 30s. Most writers reach their peak in their downhill years. Therefore, those still pedaling uphill need to pay more attention to the road signs along the way.

And I too, Sara, promise to read more lit mags this year. But I also will spend some time reading the old fogeys, and I recommend that you do too.

1 Comment a “The Poet Says “Happy New Year!” In His Old Fogey Sweet Way”

1. Jim Murdoch — January 2, 2008 @ 7:11 am
   

   One of the hardest things for young poets to assess is how good their own poetry is; they’re too close to it and they understand exactly what they meant when they put pen to paper so of course they think they’re better than what they really are.

   That’s where the Web is the best thing since sliced bread. There are sites out there like Zoetrope when you can post your work and yet immediate feedback from other poets some with more experience than you and some with more. The best thing about these sites is that they expect you to return the favour and that’s where you start to learn about what works when you have to say why a particular poem doesn’t work for you.

   The only people I had when I was starting were the editors of the magazines I submitted to and some of them were very kind in taking the time to point out the errors of my ways.

Submit a comment

Name

E-mail (not published)

Website URL

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail